1923. Moffat -Study of Common Wild Flowers. 25 



of the authors ever held a bouquet of it to his nose. The 

 scent of a single flower might, perhaps, not be perceptible. 

 But a small bunch of Viola palustris is delightfully fragrant, 

 and the scent is, moreover, quite unlike that of any other 

 flower which I have any recollection of having smelt. 



While this is, I think, the most glaring case of a mis- 

 description with regard to smell that I have come across, 

 it is clear that very little attention has been paid to the 

 subject at all by our principal standard authors, who, in 

 their descriptions even of strongly scented plants, generally 

 omit to state that they exhale odours of any kind. Neither 

 Babington nor Bentham mentions that one of our St. 

 John's-worts [Hypericum Elodes) smells strongly of curry 

 and that one of our Bedstraws (Galium palustre) fills the 

 air with the fragrance of honey ; but I regret to say that 

 popular writers are very fond of telling us that the smell 

 of the Common and Water Figworts [Scrophularia nodosa 

 and aquatica) has a striking'resemblance to that of decaying 

 meat, and that the fondness of wasps for these two flowers 

 is largely to be accounted for by the deceptive likeness in 

 their smell. I grant that the smell of the Figworts is 

 extremely disagreeable ; but except in being disagreeable 

 I can detect no similarity between it and that of flesh in 

 any condition or stage. Of course, it is possible that my 

 nose may be at fault in the matter. But in any case my 

 point is that the whole subject of the smells of flowers and 

 plants wants closer examination, and I think a beginning 

 might be made by finding what different species of plants 

 smell exactly ahke, and what others come very near them 

 so as to need a keen nose to tell the difference. As far as 

 I can make out, there is no difference between the odours 

 of the two common Figworts ; but, I would be delighted 

 to know that some one else found them to be not perfectly 

 the same, or at least could say that one was a little stronger 

 than the other. It would then be of much interest to 

 ascertain to which of the two our third Dubhn species, 

 Scrophularia umbrosa, showed the closest resemblance in 

 regard to smell. 



Then I need hardly say that the study of the habits or 

 economy of plants involves a good deal of attention to the 



