A Voice from the Past. 47 
relations of the Cryptogams to the Phanerogams. This was the 
case with Carl Adolf Agardh, Professor of Botany in the 
University of Lund till 1835, and afterwards Bishop of Wermland 
and Dalsland. It is his son, J. G. Agardh, the well-known Swedish 
Algologist, who died only a few years ago at an advanced age, 
whose name will be familiar with the present generation of 
Botanists. 
The views of the elder Agardh may be gleaned from a perusal 
of his “ Lehrbuch der Botanik,” a book in two volumes, which is 
accessible in a German translation that appeared in 1831 —1832. 
The preparation of this translation would seem to indicate the 
existence of a contemporary interest in his writings, though the 
ordinary sources of information upon which reliance is generally 
placed pass them over in silence. 1 
This omission of the historian we now attempt to repair in 
slight degree ; for the views of our author have a considerable 
interest at the present moment, and merit rescue from oblivion, 
though this be but transient. 
We begin our task of piety by a quotation. The following 
passage gives us an unusually clear picture of the position reached 
by Agardh ; how he reached it we shall see by and by. 
“ In view of their similarity in habit alone no one would be 
tempted to assert a natural or close affinity of Equisetum with 
Casuarina and the Conifers. For habit alone cannot be accepted 
as a sufficient criterion of close relationship so long as a supposed 
difference in reproductive methods forbids a close comparison. 
But on my theory (which is explained in the sequel) the case is 
entirely altered and these groups actually invite comparison. 
Equisetum seems to me to be related to the Conifers much as is 
Osmunda to the Cycads, so that here we have a transition from 
Cryptogams to Phanerogams which removes all abrupt barriers.” 
Our author then compares the male flowers of Cupressus with 
the strobili of Equisetum and points out that the agreement is 
much closer than with the male flowers of many other Phanero¬ 
gams. He then continues :—“ The existence of a lacuna in the 
recent vegetation between Equisetum and the Coniferae 
strengthens rather than weakens my position, for it is just to this 
part of the system that so many of the forms belong that have 
become extinct during the revolutions of the world. The Calamites, 
Asterophyllites, Volkmannias, Annularias and giant Equisetums 
from Whitby ; the wealth of fossil Conifers, Cycads and Ferns, 
the fruits of the Stonesfield Quarry, and so on—all these are relics 
of a vegetation that has gone long ago, leaving hardly any represen¬ 
tatives behind. Such as they are, we find them often characterised 
by naked seeds and whorled cotyledons ; they form a peculiar 
group, which in their day attained an expansion comparable to that 
of Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons in our own times. That a 
great gulf should exist between Equisetum and the Conifers is just 
what we should expect from these considerations.” 
That Agardh should have been able to reach this acceptable 
and even modern outlook so long ago as 1830 arose from his 
breaking with many of the false analogies that prevailed in his 
day of the relations between Cryptogams and Phanerogams. The 
1 They are not referred to in Sachs’ well-known “ History of 
Botany.” 
