274 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
the monuments and traditions of antiquity, which demonstrate their influence 
in the 44 old religions” of the world. In that of Druidism the veneration for the 
Mistletoe was a distinguished and important feature; and among the classic 
nations of Greece and Rome the supposed mysterious potency of certain plants 
formed the subject of frequent poetic allusion. And it was shown that down to 
the present day the charmed agencies of the vegetable world were recognized 
with fear and trembling, in many of the superstitious customs and observances 
of the retired and rural districts even of our own island. From these again had 
sprung a class of more harmless fictions, identified with the sympathies and 
affections of youth, and the hopes and fears of virgin love. The Fern-seed and 
the Poppy-leaf had hence ascribed to them mysterious influences, in illustration 
of which the lecturer related several curious anecdotes. Mr. Lees next considered 
the associations which plants and flowers awaken at every stage and period of 
existence, and under every possible variety of circumstance—the floral rambles 
of boyhood, and the botanical excursions of riper years, being alike replete 
with bright and graceful recollections, to which the mind always recurred 
with a sense of exquisite delight. The yearning of the heart for the dreams of 
its early pleasures, was strikingly evinced in the case of the 44 pent-up citizen,” 
who cherishes some dingy and bloomless evergreen, as a talisman to the floral 
associations of his youth—associations which hold mysterious mastery over the 
mind even to the hour of death. The intensity of the sympathies which plants 
and flowers originate in the minds of botanists and travellers was exemplified by 
reference to the feelings of Humboldt, whose eloquent description of those feelings 
on his revisiting the scenes of former pleasures, w r as quoted. Having thus borne 
testimony to the importance of the phenomena of vegetation, as connected with 
the sympathies of Mankind in general, Mr. Lees advanced to the consideration of 
Botany as a science ranking high in estimation, from the value of those extra¬ 
ordinary healing properties peculiar to a great number of plants. He explained, 
first, the general divisions of the science, which was followed by a brief description 
of the organized functions of plants. He then traced the history of Botany from 
the date of its earliest mention by ancient authors, down to the time of Linnaeus, 
whose discoveries drew forth a just and eloquent eulogium. Mr. Lees then pro¬ 
ceeded to give an outline of the Linnsean system, embracing the various scientific 
arrangements of its immortal founder—illustrating these by means of coloured 
drawings of different plants and flowers, selected as types of the orders and 
classes wdiich they respectively represented. Having thus examined the leading 
features of the Linnsean system, he next gave a concise view of the natural 
system of Jussieu, which recognises in the cotyledons of the plant th e principle 
of scientific classification and arrangement. The leading peculiarities of the two 
admitted systems being thus disposed of, Mr. Lees next proceeded to elucidate 
