THE FRAGRANT CALLA 



How FRAGRANCE WAS INSTILLED 

 IN A SCENTLESS FLOWER 



NOT long ago a young woman visitor who 

 had learned that the function of odor in 

 flowers is to attract bees and other insects 

 made a remark at once naive and wise. 



"It seems wonderful," she said, "that bees and 

 other insects generally have the same tastes in 

 color and perfumes that we human beings have. 

 The rose and the apple blossom are sweet to 

 them as well as to us; whereas one might 

 expect that they would care for something quite 

 different, especially when we remember that 

 cultivated people generally like more delicate 

 perfumes than those that please uncultivated 

 people." 



This remark, as I said, was at once wise and 

 naive. 



It was wise because it showed a tendency to 

 seek causes for things in nature instead of taking 

 them for granted as most people are prone to do. 



