INTRODUCTION. Xv 
compare this smell to putrid animal substances, others to that of 
rotten onions, but all agree that, if the first repugnance be once 
overcome, no fruit is more enticing than the Durion. The tree 
grows to a height of 80 feet. 
The Chenopodium olidum, or “Stinking Goosefoot,” has long 
been known for its disagreeable odour, which is compared to that 
of putrid salt-fish. If a portion of the plant be distilled with a 
solution of common soda the distillate smells strongly of boiled 
crabs, herring-brine, or haddocks which have long been kept—due 
to the presence of trimethylamine. If herring-brine be distilled 
in thesame way with soda the same volatile compound passes over, 
thus proving that the same chemical compound which imparts its 
offensive odour to dead or decaying fish is formed in the living 
plant of “ Stinking Goosefoot.” Propylamine, which is isomeric 
with trimethylamine, also possesses this fishy odour, and it has 
been found in the flowers of Crategus oxyacantha, C. monogyna, 
Pyrus communis, and Sambus Aucuparia. The odour of these 
flowers has often been thought to resemble that of decaying fish. 
This fishy odour has also been observed in the aqueous distillate 
of English rosemary, and freshly-distilled oil of rosemary is tainted 
with it until the watery particles held in mechanical suspension 
are deposited by rest or dried out by calcic chloride. 
The Nepeta cataria, or “Cat mint,” possesses an odour so de- 
lightful to cats that it is almost impossible to cultivate the plant 
in town gardens, for as soon as the cats in the neighbourhood smell 
it they rush in numbers to roll on it, and after having well broken 
it down with their convulsive capers, they finish by tearing it to 
pieces with their teeth. These animals have also a great liking for 
the odour of melons, and especially so for valerian. 
Dogs take great delight in smelling the Chenopodium vulvaria ; 
they roll on it, and the fcetid odour exhaled by the plant excites 
them to such an extent as to provoke urinary excretion. 
Toads are attracted by the odour of Stachys palustris. 
Mention is made by Mr. Louis Piesse of a tree known in Central 
Australia as the “Stinking Acacia,” by reason of the putrescent 
