15 



LEES'S LECTURE ON THE AFFINITIES OF PLANTS WITH 

 MAN AND ANIMALS.* 



The pamphlet before us, exclusive of its intrinsic merit, possesses a 

 strong claim upon our attention, as being the first publication issued 

 under the auspices of ** The Worcestershire Natural History Society." 

 To this we add another gratifying feature, in stating it to be the pro- 

 duction of a fellow citizen whose attachment to botanical pursuits has 

 beguiled him into a long train of enquiry into the features, organization, 

 attributes, and arrangement of the vegetable kingdom. Of this enquiry, 

 prosecuted with the ardour and assiduity of an enthusiast, a portion of 

 the fruit is submitted to the world in the present publication, and this 

 portion includes not only the result of the observations of some of our 

 most scientific writers upon Natural History, but much curious and 

 original information conveyed in a pleasing and luminous style. 



The lecture was delivered, by desire, before the members of ** The 

 Worcestershire Natural History Society" (to the Patron, President, and 

 Council of which it is inscribed), and a very numerous audience, on the 

 twenty-sixth of November, 1833, and the interest which it created, 

 strengthened by a sense of its utility and importance, induced the 

 Council of the Society to forward a requisition to Mr. Lees, calling upon 

 him to enhance the value of his "lecture" by its diffusion in print. 

 With this requisition (a gratifying and honourable testimonial in his 

 favour) Mr. Lees deemed it fitting to comply, and after carefully 

 revising his MS. and introducing many very valuable notes, illustrative 

 and explanatory, has presented us with an instructive memorial of the 

 wisdom of Divine Providence. A conviction of the power, the majesty, 

 the goodness, and the mercy of God being absolutely inseparable from 

 the study of Natural History, it is impossible to lay down any volume 

 on the subject without acknowledging the moral dignity of a pursuit 

 which brings before the mind a succession of the most irrefragable 

 proofs of omnipotence ; and as we have always felt that the lover of 

 nature — unless actually blinded by the delusions of error — must be a 

 believer in the truths of religion, we would earnestly recommend the 

 science as a mental exercise, meet to go hand-in-hand with the reading 

 of the Scriptures. * " O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom 

 hast thou made them all ; the earth is full of thy riches." 



In the course of an unostentatious preface, elucidatory not only of the 

 very laudable view with which he consented to the publication of his 

 lecture, but of the purpose to which he has applied the materials of his pre- 

 decessors, Mr. Lees proceeds to remark that some " may object that he has 

 made a copious use of the stores of others ;" but when Mr. L. informs us 

 that he has " employed these researches as a foundation for his super- 

 structure in the same manner as the architect uses the stones brought from 

 the rough quarry, and that he has duly acknowledged the sources of infor- 

 mation wherever it was important to do so" (preface, p. vii.), the possible 

 objection and its reply increase the credit of a work, which, in addition 



* The Affinities of Plants with Man and Animals, their Analogies and As- 

 sociations ; a Lecture delivered before tlie Worcestersliire Natural History Society, 

 Nov. 26, 1833, by Edwin Lees, Honorary Curator, Honorary Secretary of the 

 Worcestershire Horticultural Society, Member of the Entomological Society of 

 London, ^c. with additional notes and illustrations. London, William Edwards, 

 13, Ave Maria Lync. 8vo. pp. 122. 



