140 Anniversary Address. 



which it has visited, and gives expression to the genial spirit by 

 which it has been actuated. In this volume the district is gra- 

 phically described ; all the plants are registered, from the hum- 

 blest Conferva, that appears as green slime on the waters, to the 

 noblest tree adorning the forest ; but the peculiarity of the work, 

 by which indeed it stands pre-eminent over every other flora, is 

 that truths are here seen in their connexions, and made mutually 

 to illustrate each other ; for whatever of interest is associated 

 with plants — whether beautiful scenery or descriptive poetry — 

 whether legends or historical events — the folk-lore of a district 

 or the memories of the wise and good — is brought to make these 

 plants delightful instructors of the mind and heart. The work 

 belongs to a class which is unfortunately too small, wherein the 

 resources of a powerful imagination and a cultivated taste lend 

 a charm to exact science. Pervaded throughout by an ardent 

 love of nature, and containing many lovely pictures of natural 

 scenery and of pastoral life, and written in a style beautiful and 

 eloquent, it will inspire others with a love of nature, and send 

 them forth from confined towns and dissipating pursuits to the 

 brae side, the wooded glen, the hill top, and the sea-shore, to 

 observe her varied productions, and " hold communion with her 

 visible forms." And this will be productive of an important 

 moral and social benefit ; for, as the author well says, — " The 

 studies that woo the spirit away from grossness, that keep the 

 mind in life and action, and, furnished with varied and ever- 

 germinating matter of thought and illustration, are useful to all ; 

 and, as ours contemplate only the beautiful and the perfect, yet 

 are full of emblematic teachings and moralities, they must ame- 

 liorate the man, — at once adorning and relieving the toils and 

 vexations of a busy life, and refining and exalting the enjoyments 

 of a social one." 



This is not an unfitting time for the Club to look inquiringly 

 into the future. I demur to the notion, that because so much 

 has been reaped during the past, nought save scanty glean- 

 ings remain for future cultivators. Some departments yet pre- 

 sent broad and rich fields of labour. Many of our ancient 

 dwellings, sepulchres, hill fortlets, and camps, which are scat- 

 tered pretty numerously over the wilder and secluded parts of 

 the district, yet remain unnoticed and undescribed ; the more 

 interesting of our venerable churches, with their quaint memo- 



