221 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Evolution, Devolution and iSystematic Gardening'. 
Among the very ancient ideas of the evolution of 
vegetable life on the Earth are those of the “Rig 
\’eda,” one of the sacred books of the Hindus. As my 
memory serves me, it states the beginning about as 
follows: “In the beginning there was darkness in 
darkness enfolded, all was watery vapour.” 
The life which lay in space was developed by the 
power of heat. But the rays of heat and of light, 
did they come from above or below? (i. e. from other 
suns or the earth?) 
Afterwards mighty forces arose, and seeds were 
sown. He from whom this creation sprang, whether 
He made it directly or not. The All Seeing One, He 
knows it — or He does not.” 
Such a genesis crystallizes about all we know today 
of the nebular hypothesis and evolutionary theory ; the 
most advanced philosophical thought has penetrated 
but little further. 
So far as our Earth gives evidence it seems to have 
been always as big or bigger than today. The crust 
seems to have contracted, "mighty forces arose” and 
cracked and crumpled it up. 
It is fair to assume that from the period when “seeds 
were sown” the climates must have varied ; even as the 
position of the poles changed, the extreme temperatures 
could scarcely vary less, and it is difficult to imagine 
any single organism equally well adapted to them all. 
It seems to be the aim of modern research to find 
some unicellular body so adapted, and upon which a 
genealogy may be built for the whole vegetable king- 
dom. 
I hope I am stating the case of the “genealogists” 
correctly ? 
Now why could not a number of the lower vege- 
table organisms be developed simultaneously or grad- 
ually, as the surfaces of the Earth became fitted for 
them, and the varying climates encouraged them ? 
And what is there to preclude the belief that most 
of these primary organisms perished untold ages ago? 
In the papers on the Geography of Garden Plants 
the attentive reader will have noticed that Aroids 
alone among flowering plants can be followed down 
to a minute globule, IVolfUa Columbiana, which may 
be a very ancient form indeed. But in Asia, Africa,, 
Europe and in tropical and temperate America there 
are about a dozen other IVoIffias, all of which I believe 
have a higher development and larger size than the 
North American plant. Now : these larger forms may 
at some earlier stage of the Earth’s existence have oc- 
cupied what are the Arctic regions of the present day. 
Suppose the Earth cooled oI¥ in those regions first,, 
wouldn't the first stages of cooling be much warmer 
than later ones, then why is not our IVolffia^ a degen- 
erate and depauperate form ? 
The fact of the matter is that as much may be said 
for devolution as evolution, and that both processes 
are, in the multiplicity of their variants, and the incon- 
ceivable remoteness of their antiquity, far removed from 
human ken ; anything that can be written from age to- 
age can merely appeal with more or less force to the hu- 
man understanding, and he is the greatest philosopher 
who like the old writer of the “Rig Veda” admits that 
— “The All Seeing One, He knows it — or He does 
not.” 
So far as the “accepted” systems of botany are of 
concern to the gardener, it may be said that most are 
founded on the assumption that all plants have sprung 
from an original seed like a tree, and like a tree have 
branched into primary, secondary and highly divided 
branchlets, and the original seed of the vegetable king- 
dom is being diligently sought so as to perfect the 
genealogy. 
This idea is the foundation of what is known as the 
lineal system of planting in force in the Botanic 
Gardens. It is generally impossible to get any grace- 
fulness or beauty out of it, because the material made 
to stand in relation may have the most diverse size 
and habit imaginable. Therefore it is common to> 
