THE PARLOR GARDENER. 37 



plant while it is in flower ; for its odor is not 

 agreeable. This peculiarity, however, should not 

 induce you to exclude it from your itagere> where 

 it will be very well placed, because of the singu- 

 larity of its form. As to its smell, which is 

 not strong enough to incommode you, I should 

 not have mentioned it, but for the circumstance of 

 its having caused this flower to be mistaken for a 

 very different thing by the flies called flesh-flies ; 

 which mistake has given rise to quite a curious 

 observation in natural history. 



Have flies noses ? you will say, ladies. 



I must acknowledge that I do not know whether 

 they have or have not noses ; although entomolo- 

 gy, together with botany, are my favorite studies. 

 This much, however, I do know that they have 

 the sense of smell. That this is certain you can 

 ascertain for yourselves, by having a stapelia in 

 bloom upon your 6tag&re. The flower of the sta- 

 pelia smells like meat that has been kept too long ; 

 and flesh-flies, who lay their eggs on spoiled meat, 

 are attracted to this flower by its smell. These 

 eggs give birth to worms destined to become flies 

 in their turn. If you shut flesh-flies up in a 



