COLORS AND FRAGRANCE OF FLOWERS. 79 



the plant, if the habit of such insect or animal be to 

 devour it, except in the instances of fruits. When the 

 plant is of such a nature that it would be destroyed by 

 the loss of its foliage, the new growth is invariably pro 

 tected by thorns, by a poisonous quality of its sap, or 

 by a strong odor or acrid taste, which respectively guard 

 it from the attacks of insects and herbivorous animals. 

 Hence the apple, the pear, the hawthorn, and the rose, 

 whose foliage and tender branches are agreeable and 

 wholesome to animals, are protected in their wild state 

 by thorns. The peach, the plum, and the cherry, on 

 the contrary, are without thorns, and nature accordingly 

 has protected them from the ravages of insects and 

 animals, by infusing a bitter and poisonous principle 

 into their sap. The willow and its kindred tribes, not 

 so well protected by this bitter taste, and being without 

 a poisonous quality, have more of that sort of vitality 

 which enables them to recover from the effects of severe 

 browsing at any season of the year. 



There is another fact which is worthy of remark. 

 When the fields and meadows in summer are full of 

 gaudy flowers, we find some species growing in the 

 shade of woods, and under the cover of thick shrubbery. 

 Such is the sweet pyrola. Nature has given to this 

 delicate flower, that hides its drooping blossoms under 

 the foliage of the sweet gale and the panicled andro- 

 meda, the delicious odor of cinnamon. This species is 

 white, and bears its flowers in a spike with their disk 

 turned downwards. The more elegant and showy flow 

 ers of the pyrola umbellata, on the other hand, which 

 are not concealed under the foliage of shrubs, being 

 more conspicuous, are accordingly deprived of the fra 

 grance of their kindred species. The same principle is 

 extended to the shrubs ; while the magnificent clusters 



