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of scentless plants, yet the majority are full of per- 

 fume. Some few, as the elegant crown imperial, 

 have a very disagreeable smell. Fragrance in plants 

 comes from certain oils or resins laid up in different 

 parts of the plant, whether in the leaves, bark, wood, 

 fruit, seeds, or blossoms. 



Some flowers have especial glands or develop- 

 ments called nectaries, in which honey is laid up for 

 insect guests. All children have sucked the honey 

 from the lower j^arts of the long tubes of the honey- 

 suckle, or clover, or from the spur of the violet. 



Fragrance and nectar are especially abundant 

 about the time of the ripening of the pollen. After 

 the anthers have shed all their pollen the flower be- 

 gins to fade, and then the fragrance loses its delicate 

 sweetness, becomes heavy and sickly, or positively 

 unpleasant. At this time also the nectar dries away, 

 unless it has all been previously drunk up by 

 insects. 



A perfect or symmetrical flower is one having all 

 its parts evenly placed and in equal number in each 

 set of organs. For example, the flax flower is a per- 

 fect, symmetrical flower, with five sepals, five petals, 

 five stamens, five pistils. The trillium or bath flower 

 is divided into threes : three sepals, three petals, even 

 three sides to the capsule, and three lobes on each 

 leaf. 



