Asa Gray

“Is it philosophical, is it quite allowable, to assume without evidence from fossil plants that the family or any of the genera was once larger and wide spread? and occupied a continuous area?”

“Why is it not just as likely that there were as many small general nearly at first as now, and as great a disproportion in the number of their species?”

“I know some people who never have any difficulties to speak of. The moment I understood your premisses, I felt sure you had a real foundation to hold on.”

“In short, the animal and vegetable lines, diverging widely above, join below in a loop.”

“We have spoken of beings so low in the scale that the individuals throughout their whole existence are not sufficiently specialized to be distinctively plant or animal: yet these are definite life in simpler shape.”