382 Lees's Affinities of Plants isoith Man^ %c. 



Partington^ C. F., Author of various Works on Natural and 

 Experimental Philosophy, &c. : The British Cyclopaedia, 

 in monthly 4to Parts, \s. each [subsequently raised to 1^. 

 ed. each]. Division III. (purchaseable separately), Natural 

 History, combining a Scientific Classification of Animals, 

 Plants, and Minerals ; with a popular view of their Habits, 

 Economy, and Structure. 

 Part i. contains 56 pages of letterpress, two plates, and 



some woodcuts. It is far, indeed, from faultless; but at a 



cheaper rate than any work on natural history which has yet 



been offered to the public. 



Lees, Edwin, F.L.S., Hon. Curator of the Worcestershire 

 Natural History Society, &c. : The Affinities of Plants with 

 Man and Animals, their Analogies and Associations; a 

 Lecture delivered before the Worcestershire Natural His- 

 tory Society, on Nov. 26. 1833; with additional Notes and 

 Illustrations. 8vo, 120 pages. London, 1834. 2>s. 6d. 

 This is a choice addition to what we would term the polite 

 literature of botany. Plants have not failed to produce some 

 embellishing effect on the polite literature of mankind in 

 general, while we think that the literature of botany has re- 

 mained, strange as it may seem, until latterly as unpolite as 

 well could be. The ideas expressed on plants, and the terms 

 in which they have been expressed, have been, among the 

 botanical (ourselves, if we may do ourselves this honour, in- 

 cluded), too much those of the dissecting room. Plants are 

 poetical pictures; and to view them but with anatomical eyes 

 is, perhaps, to defraud ourselves of the prime of the pleasures 

 they give. Well, however this may be, Mr. Lees has, in the 

 work before us, collected, and originated, and connected with 

 them, a volume of sweet and pleasing associations ; and so 

 done much to enrich the imagery of the science of botany, 

 and multiply the influences of plants upon human sen- 

 timentality. 



" There is a still, a soothing thought. 

 With purity and calmness fraught. 



That steals upon the mind ; 

 Soft as the tear that eve distils. 

 Sweet as the breath of murmuring rills. 

 Or music on the wind." 



And plants are, " when all within is peace," effective incentives 

 of this blissful state of feeling. The considerations which 

 Mr. Lees has offered on them are in promotion of this state 

 of feeling; and the enriching and exercising our faculties 

 of fancy, memory, and understanding by means of them: the 

 offices of plants to these ends constitute what Mr. Lees has 

 denominated " the affinities of plants with man," 



