32 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 



Dimarpliolays, a vine resembling the gourd, look 

 precisely like small dead branches or twigs. One 

 kind of Scorpiurus produces pods that to the eye 

 are centipedes; another species produces worms or 

 caterpillars ! 



Plants simulate the odours and perfumes as well 

 as the forms and colours of "things which they are 

 not." Some simulate the odour of pepper, of 

 cheese, cucumbers, roast beef, sour milk; and oth- 

 ers, like the carrion plant, or cuckoo-pint, smell 

 like rotten and decaying flesh; still others, like the 

 roots of the orris, give forth a delightful perfume. 

 The dragon arum, a native of southern Europe, 

 arrays itself in the most gorgeous costume, whose 

 regal splendour challenges the proudest of the 

 floral kingdom; and, yet, as soon as the spadix ap- 

 pears, with its black silky dagger, the plant gives 

 forth a terrible odour which attracts large num- 

 bers of insects, that aid in distributing its pollen. 



The American skunk-cabbage is another example 

 of a plant that attracts the attention of flies and 

 insects by imitating the odour of decaying flesh. 

 No doubt, owing to its early appearance in the 

 spring, if it did not have this offensive odour it 

 would be quite neglected by the few early insects 

 which have ventured out before the snow disap- 

 pears from the ground. 



