" Let us content ourselves no longer with being mere * botanists ' — his- 

 torians of structural facts. The flowers are not mere comely or curious 



vegetable creations, with colo?-s, odors, petals, stamens and innumerable 

 technical attributes. The %uonted insight alike of scientist, philosopher, 

 theologian, and dreamer is now repudiated in the new 7-evelation. Beauty 

 is not ' its own excuse for being,' nor was fragrance ever ' laasied oti the 

 desert air.'' The seer has at last heard and interpreted the voice in the 

 wilderness. The flower is no longer a simple passive victim in the busy 

 bee' s sweet pillage, but rather a conscious being, with hopes, aspirations 

 and companionships. The insect is its counterpart. Its fragrance is but 

 a perfumed whisper of welcome, its color is as the 7vooing blush and rosy 

 lip, its portals are decked for his coming, and its sweet hospitalities humored 

 to his tarrying ; and as it speeds its parting aflinity, rests content that its 

 life's consummatiofi has been fulfilled.''^ — William Hamilton Gibson. 



XV 



