PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
273 
what he considers his duty, and that merely with the view of “remaining in 
office.” Honorary curators, on the other hand, if judiciously selected, will neces¬ 
sarily feel a pride in carrying the museum to the utmost possible point of per¬ 
fection. 
At a future opportunity we may perhaps “ report progress.” Most assuredly 
we shall keep our eyes steadily on the Institution, and would recommend it to 
beware of incurring our mighty displeasure. Thus far we like the “ face of 
affairs.*’ Only let the Society proceed with the activity and intelligence em¬ 
ployed in its establishment, and it will fulfil the object of its existence speedily 
and surely. 
CHELTENHAM LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION. 
We now proceed to present our readers, according to promise, with a brief 
abstract of Mr. Lses’ recent lectures at Cheltenham. The reports are gathered 
from three distinct numbers of the Looker-On of that fashionable watering 
place:— 
On Tuesday evening, Dec. 4, Mr. Edwin Lees, the eminent naturalist, com¬ 
menced a course of lectures on “ The Phenomena of Vegetation as connected with 
the History, and harmonizing with the Sympathies, of Mankind in general.” He 
commenced his discourse by an elegant appeal in favour of Botany, and illustrative 
of its beauty and importance in the economy of creation, sketching a vivid picture 
of a world devoid of vegetation, in contrast with one clothed with the rich verdure 
and bloom which distinguishes the present habitable globe. The effect which the 
improvements of civilization exercise upon the development of vegetable life was 
described, and how the vegetable world was rendered essential to the happiness 
and even existence of Mankind. The use and importance of plants and flowers 
in their various relations to Man were pointed out, and exemplified by the instance 
of the Grasses, a numeration of the different tribes and varieties of which was 
given, and many highly interesting statistical particulars furnished respecting the 
consumption of Corn in its divers states and combinations. The important 
improvements effected in the vegetable world by cultivation were dwelt upon, 
and the changes in the quality and nature of plants, flowers, and fruits, instanced 
by a number of familiar illustrations, proving how the crude productions of the wild 
or savage state were, by cultivation, converted into the richest luxuries of civilized 
life. Mr. Lees next referred to the numerous uses to which, in the service of 
Man, plants were applicable, and to the valuable consequences which had resulted 
from the discovery of the healing properties which many of them possess. Vari¬ 
ous superstitious rites and ceremonies, dominant in the dark and middle ages, 
were shown to have originated in this same course; the existence of such rites 
among all people, was illustrated by the numberless allusions of Poetry, and by 
