58 
forms that continue beyond, as far as the bracMpoda appear to 
be concerned, and why should a number of genera such as 
Lingula, Discina, Crania, and Lhynchonella have continued to 
be represented with the same characters, and often -^ith but 
small modification in shape during the entire sequence of 
geological strata ? Why did they not offer modifications or 
alter dming those incalculable ages ? ” Alluding also to other 
genera, he says, “ They are all possessed of such marked and 
distinctive internal characters that we cannot trace between 
them and. associated or sjmchronous genera any evidence of 
their being either modifications of one or the other, or of being 
the result of descent with modification. Therefore, although 
far from denying the possibility or probability of the correct¬ 
ness of the Darwinian theory, I could not conscientiously afcm 
that the Brachiopoda, as far as I am at present acquainted with 
them, would be of much service in proving it.” In an inau¬ 
gural address read before the members of the Greologists’ 
Association in 1876, with special reference to the theory of 
evolution, Mr. Carruthers states : “ The time required for such 
evolutions is beyond conception, and vastly greater than even the 
largest estimate of geologic time that has ever been made. That 
the rocks testify to a development of some kind is beyond 
doubt; but development is not necessarily the sole property of 
the mechanical evolutionist. At present we have no data to 
guide to a solution of the question as to the mode by which the 
development was accomplished. One thing is certain, that the 
whole testimony of the vegetable kingdom, as it is known to 
us from the remains preserved in the stratified rocks, is opposed 
to the doctrine that the development is due to evolution by 
descent.” In the “ Scientific Be^iew,” published in France, 
for June, 1877, there is an official report of a work recently 
published by M. Gfrand Emy upon the carboniferous flora of 
Central France by Mr. B. Zeiller, mining engineer, and this 
Tvork may, perhaps, be quoted as one of the most exhaustive 
that has been written on the subject. The writer says it is 
remarkable to see in all this period the flora preserving a perfect 
imity from the base to the summit by the same classes, orders, 
and families; then to completely disappear. No species, per- 
