THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 455 



The poisonous vapors which envelop the poppy and nen- 

 uphar reveal their narcotic properties. Infectious exhala- 

 tions, precisely like those from putrefied meat, escape from 

 the flowers of the Stapelia and Arum, and thus the insect, 

 deceived by them, deposits on their calyces a carnivorous 

 progeny, which must infallibly perish. Some, plants emit 

 odors exactly like those produced by certain animals : an 

 orchis of our forests (Satyrium hyrcinum, Linn.) repels us 

 by its goat-like stench. Other plants attract us by their 

 sweetness : thus the musk-mallow (Malva moschata, Linn. ) 

 distils the same perfume as the musk animal (Moschus mos- 

 chifenis, Linn.). 



The perfume of flowers seems to depend upon the volatil- 

 ization of an essential oil which they secrete in their most 

 hidden recesses. In some plants this is palpably the fact. 

 When the atmosphere is very still the odorous vapors col- 

 lect round them, and can be burned by means of an ignited 

 substance. 



By employing very varied methods, the successors of the 

 skilful perfumers whom Mary of Medici brought to France 

 from Italy collect the odoriferous essences exhaled from the 

 flowers, and which also saturate many other organs. The 

 otto of roses, one of the treasures of the East, is only this 

 oil in a concrete state. 1 Camphor offers us another under 

 the form of crystals. 



1 From what Homer says, it seems that in his time men already knew how to 

 prepare a kind of oil of roses by infusing these flowers in an oily liquid, and it is 

 certain that in antiquity they were cultivated in order to extract a perfume from 

 them. The Island of Rhodes even owed its name of Island of Roses to the fame 

 of its cultivation of rose-trees; but probably the use of this perfume was discon- 

 tinued, for rose-water is not mentioned by authors, and it is spoken of for the 



