CHAPTER XIII 



THE SCENTS OF FLOWERS 



THERE can be no doubt that the whole subject 

 of flower scents is a very interesting one, and that 

 no botanical student can altogether leave it out of 

 his studies. The subject, so far as it concerns the 

 perfumer only, was well treated of by M. Eugene 

 Rimmel, in his Le Livre des Parfumes^ published 

 in 1870, with an introduction by Alphonse Karr, 

 and an enlargement of The Book of Perfumes, 

 published in 1860 ; and the same subject from the 

 same point of view has been thoroughly worked 

 out by Mr J. C. Sawer in his Odorograpkia, 1892, 

 1894, and his Rhodologia, 1894. But there is a 

 great deal more strictly botanical connected with 

 flower scents on which there is much to be said, 

 and a great deal also which we can only call 

 unsolved mystery. 



The scientific and botanical interest range round 

 the question, "What is the use of scent in plants?" 

 It is not many years since this question would 

 have been answered at once, and without the 

 slightest hesitation. The answer would have been 

 that owing to their delicate scent plants became 

 more pleasant food to all the animals that feed 



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