The whole evidence supplied by fossil plants is, then, opposed to the hypothesis of genetic evolution, and especially the sudden and simultaneous appearance of the most highly organized plants at particular stages in the past history of the globe, and the entire absence amongst fossil plants of any forms intermediate between existing classes or families. The facts of palæontological botany are opposed to Evolution, but they testify to Development, to progression from lower to higher types. The cellular Algæ preceded the Vascular Cryptogams and the Gymnosperms of the Newer Palæozoic rocks, and these were speedily followed by Monocotyledons, and, at a much later period, by Dicotyledons. But the earliest representatives of these various sections of the vegetable kingdom were not generalized forms, but as highly organized as recent forms, and in many cases more highly organized: and the divisions were as clearly bounded in their essential characters, and as decidedly separated from each other as they are at the present day. So much for the vegetable world. As for the animal, although the number and complexity of its divisions makes it less easy to present so complete a sketch in these moderate limits, the features of its history are very similar. As Sir J. W. Dawson recounts it:[253] ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT. +----------------------------------------------------+ | Post Tertiary. | Man and Modern Mammals. | +----------------------------------------------------+ { | Pliocene. | | { +----------------------------------------------------+ Tertiary. { | Miocene. | | { +-------------------+--------------------------------+ { | Eocene. | Placental Mammals (Ungulates, | { | | Unguiculates, Rodents, | { | | Whales, Bats). | +-------------------+--------------------------------+ { | Chalk. | | { +-------------------+--------------------------------+ Secondary.{ | Oolite. | Birds. | { +-------------------+--------------------------------+ { | Trias. | Marsupial Mammals. | +-------------------+--------------------------------+ { | Permian. | Reptiles (various orders). | { +-------------------+--------------------------------+ { | Carboniferous. | | { +-------------------+--------------------------------+ { | Devonian, or | Millipeds, Insects, Spiders, |