96 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



odoriferous substances of plants are justified by 

 their protective value, and others by their attractive 

 value, while of many it must be simply admitted 

 that their significance is internal and chemical, 

 sometimes perhaps no more than that of the waste- 

 products in a manufactory, and that their quality 

 of olfactory stimulation has not been turned to any 

 account. They are the ashes of the living fires, 

 yet as we sniff the perfumed air in which quintillions 

 of aromatic particles are hurrying past us, here from 

 gorse and hawthorn, there from woodruff and sweet 

 vernal grass, we cannot but ask whether this multi- 

 tudinous aerial excretion may not have some 

 physiological significance in the economy of 

 creatures which are, as compared with animals, con- 

 spicuously without arrangements for getting rid of 

 their waste products. May not this volatilization of 

 the ethereal oils help to keep the floral fire from 

 being smothered in its own ashes ? 



In this medley of odors, whiffs of brier rose and 

 lady's bedstraw, honeyed clover and soporific 

 myrrh, the idea that rings in the mind like a bell 

 is Individuality, Specificity, Uniqueness. All flesh 

 is not the same flesh, and each flower's fragrance 

 is its own and no other's. Some five hundred 

 different aromatic compounds have been distin- 

 guished, such as the aminoid in hawthorn, the 

 benzoloids in mignonette and violets, the paraffin- 

 oids in geranium and rose, the turpenoids in orange 

 and lavender, each group including many specifi- 

 cally different kinds, indices of the individuality 



