PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
275 
the phenomena of distribution and propagation, both of which “ mysteries” he 
illustrated by reference to numerous recorded facts and interesting anecdotes, as 
he did also the geographical and geological influences affecting the growth and 
development of particular tribes and plants, and with this, and a pleasant anec¬ 
dote of the enthusiasm of a mountain botanist, the lecture concluded. 
Mr. Edwin Lees delivered the second lecture of his course before a very 
numerous audience, on Dec. 11. The subject of the discourse was—trees con¬ 
sidered in their various relations with Man. Previous, however, to entering upon 
their consideration, Mr. Lees took a cursory review of the primary vegetation of 
the globe, the extent and importance of which were illustrated by reference to the 
Coal-fields of our own and other countries. The immense forests of ancient Gaul, 
Germany, and Scotland, and the existing ones of America and Norway, were 
instanced as examples of the quantity of wood which, in the various epochs of 
the world’s history, had successively covered its surface, and which, while sup¬ 
plying Man with protection and shelter, and convertible by him to numerous uses 
for the purposes of life, were also the scenes of the most diabolical superstitions. 
The effects which woodland scenery produce upon the mind, when viewed in 
different periods of its growth and development, were glanced at, and Mr. Lees 
then proceeded to treat his subject more in detail, by considering trees—first, as 
objects of utility : by Man, in every stage of his history, their importance had 
been felt and acknowledged; to them the primitive inhabitants of every country 
were indebted for their food, for shelter, for their weapons of attack and defence ; 
and civilized society was under greater obligations to trees—considered as objects 
of utility—than to any of the other materials which Nature supplied for the use 
and sustenance of Man. Viewed in connexion with the rights and superstitions 
of the dark ages, trees afforded many awful and instructive lessons. The broad 
depths of the ancient forests among savage nations were the scenes of orgies of the 
most diabolical description, the mere recital of which now excites our wonder 
how beings endowed with intellect could ever have invented the infernal rights 
which, it is well known, were practised in the dark woods of Gaul and Britain 
by our own Druidical ancestors. Superstition had indeed peculiarly identified 
itself with the sombre forest and the gay greenwood: the imaginative mythology 
of Greece and Rome had peopled their sacred groves with a race of more poetical 
forms than those which stalked in savage grandeur through the dark haunts of 
Celtic and Scandinavian forests, but it was superstition still, modified only by the 
circumstances of the time, and adapted to the peculiar character of the countries, 
and the dispositions and habits of the people. In illustration of the veneration 
entertained for trees, by Greece and Rome, Mr. Lees quoted a number of beau¬ 
tiful and apposite allusions, chiefly from the classic poets. The fantastic forms. 
occasionally exhibited by trees frequently almost justified the fear which the- 
YOL. IV.—NO. XXIX. 2 O: 
