Chap. 18.] THE NATUEE OF ODOURS. 323 



fenugreek. 37 Not all flowers which have a penetrating odour 

 are destitute of juices, the violet, the rose, and the crocus, for 

 example ; those, on the other hand, which have a penetrating 

 odour, but are destitute of juices, have all of them a very pow- 

 erful smell, as we find the case with the two varieties 38 of the 

 lily. The abrotonum 39 and the amaracus 40 have a pungent 

 smell. In some plants, it is the flower only that is sweet, the 

 other parts being inodorous, the violet and the rose, for example. 



Among the garden plants, the most odoriferous are the dry 

 ones, such as rue, mint, and parsley, as also those which grow 

 on dry soils. Some fruits become more odoriferous the older 

 they are, the quince, for example, which has also a stronger 

 smell when gathered than while upon the tree. Some plants, 

 again, have no smell but when broken asunder, or when bruised, 

 and others only when they are stripped of their bark. Certain 

 vegetable substances, too, only give out a smell when subjected 

 to the action of fire, such as frankincense and myrrh, for ex- 

 ample. All flowers are more bitter to the taste when bruised 

 than when left untouched. 41 Some plants preserve their smell 

 a longer time when dried, the melilote, for example ; others, 

 again, make the place itself more odoriferous where they grow, 

 the iris 42 for instance, which will even render the whole of a 

 tree odoriferous, the roots of which it may happen to have 

 touched. The hesperis 43 has a more powerful odour at night, 

 a property to which it owes its name. 



Among the animals, we find none that are odoriferous, un- 

 less, indeed, we are inclined to put faith in what has been said 

 about the panther. 44 



3 " See B. xviii. c. 39. 



38 The white lily and the red lily. See c. 11 of this Book. 



39 As to the Abrotonum, see B. xiii. c. 2, and c. 34 of this Book. 



40 See c. 35 of this Book. 



41 Or in other words, the interior of the petals has a more bitter flavour 

 than that of the exterior surface. 



4a Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theoplirastus, De Causis, 

 B. vi. c. 25. That author is speaking not of the flower, but of the rain- 

 bow, under the name of " iris." Pliny has himself made a similar state- 

 ment as to the rainbow, in B. xii. c. 52, which he would appear here to 

 have forgotten. 



43 The Cheiranthus tristis of Linnaeus, or sad gilliflower, Fee thinks. 



44 See B. viii. c. 23. Pliny did not know of the existence of the musk- 

 deer, the Muschus moschiferus of Eastern Asia : and he seems not to have 

 thought of the civet, (if, indeed, it was known to him) the fox, the weasel, 



T 2 



