94 ODORS OF VEGETATION. 



fume of mignonette, most perceptible when the vines are 

 in flower. This is the true ambrosia of the gods, the 

 honey-scent of Mount Hybla. It seems as if nature 

 had infused into the leaf or flower of all plants that 

 bear an agreeable fruit some odor that shall be a re- 

 minder of its presence. The scent of the grapevine 

 comes chiefly from its flowers, that of the strawberry- 

 plant from its foliage and fruit. Both leaf and flower of 

 the same plant are seldom fragrant. The flower of the 

 sweetbrier has very little scent compared with that of the 

 common wild rose. The insect, whose services are so 

 valuable to the species, needs not the odor of the flower 

 if it can perceive that of the leaf. 



The characteristic odors of the seasons come chiefly 

 from flowers in the spring and early summer, from herbs 

 and foliage in the latter summer, and from the ripened 

 harvest and withered leaves in autumn. Winter is 

 without odors, except those of the forest and seaside. The 

 first aroma that pervades the atmosphere in spring is that 

 of willows and poplars, which are very distinct ; the 

 former resembling that of lilacs, the latter more balsamic, 

 and proceeding no less from the glutinous buds than from 

 the flowers. Xature never seems so capricious as when 

 she distributes her odors among the different species of 

 vegetation. Why should the flowers of the elm and the 

 maple be scentless, differing in this respect so notably 

 from other spring flowers ? Fragrance is denied them, 

 perhaps as a superfluity, because they bloom and fade . 

 before the insect tribes are abroad. 



We are all familiar with the scent of flowering orchard 

 trees. It is the incense that May diffuses over the land- 

 scape just before her departure. The blossom of lin- 

 den-trees succeeds, and brings along with it a universal 

 hum of insects, that seem intoxicated with its sweets. 

 From this bloom the bee gathers the choicest honey. 



