LUTHER BURBANK 



It was naive because it quite overlooked the 

 true significance of tlie function of odors in 

 nature. 



A moment's further reflection would have 

 shown the young woman that it is not at all a 

 question of the bee liking the things that man 

 likes, but a question of man having learned to 

 like the things that the bee likes. 



The scent of the flower was not put forth to 

 please or displease man, but to please and attract 

 the insect. 



And man learned to like the odors that were 

 constantly presented to him largely because they 

 were constantly presented; just as you may learn 

 to like a food — say, for example, olives — by 

 repeatedly tasting it, though at first you do not 

 care for it. 



The exception, of course, is the odor that 

 is associated with unhygienic things, such as 

 decaying vegetable and animal matter. These 

 are attractive to the insects that feed on them 

 because the substances that produce the odors are 

 to these insects wholesome. But they do not 

 attract the bee because they contain nothing on 

 which that insect can feed; and they do not 

 attract us because for us the substances that 

 produce them are pernicious. 



But doubtless the carrion beetle finds the odor 



[74] 



