LATER YEARS OF A PLANT. 199 



grance being given to the children of the low lands only. 

 So with man it is not proud beauty that is most lovely ; 

 there is a far more potent charm in the sweet perfume 

 that surrounds the meek and the gentle. Trees are dif- 

 ferent, for here Nature seems to have wished to compen- 

 sate the north for the absence of gay colors, by giving 

 sweet odors to whole classes of plants. Thus the humble 

 reed is there aromatic enough, to form with sugar a favorite 

 luxury ; as dew falls there spreads abroad the fruit-like 

 perfume of the golden furze ; the birch-tree exhales in 

 early spring a sweet rose fragrance, and the pine is aro- 

 matic from the root to its graceful cone. Some flowers 

 have unpleasant odors. The largest on earth, which takes 

 its name from its discoverer, Raffles, and which is more 

 than three feet in diameter, has an animal smell, closely 

 resembling that of beef, and the so-called friar's-cowl 

 smells so strongly of spoiled meat, that it deceives the 

 blue-bottle fly, and tempts it to deposit its eggs there, 

 as if it were carrion. Poisonous plants have, generally, 

 a sickening and noxious smell, like our aconites, the ailan- 

 thus, and Kentucky locust, which exhale a subtle poison, 

 and are fatal to many insects. In all instances, however, 

 fragrance is given to plants for some special and bene- 

 ficent purpose, mostly to attract animals, and to tell them 

 where a table is spread for them. It is well known that 

 all animals smell what they want to eat, often at a pro- 

 digious distance, and as Nature calls by their smell the 

 vulture and the buzzard to perform that duty, which is 

 their highest enjoyment, so all theory of botany lies, with 

 animals, in their exquisitely developed smell. Nor ought 



