EMISSION OF SCENTS FROM PLANTS. 



ing in the air : but the emission of scents from plants 

 is in no way similar to this dispersion of the pollen, 

 but an imperceptible body that has uninterruptedly 

 flowed from certain races, when in particular states. 

 Viewing the faculties of man in all their bearings, 

 each present a character, by the sensations or per- 

 ceptions excited, most extraordinary and inexpli- 

 cable ; nor is this sense of smelling attended with 

 less remarkable effects than others : \ve may have 

 before us innumerable fruits or flowers that emit 

 odours, each exciting a different sensation by the 

 gas or vapour that proceeds from them, distinguish- 

 ing them as readily as the sight of the individual 

 would do. Of what does this vapour consist ? Is 

 it compounded of solid particles, each emission dif- 

 ferently formed, and acting in a way peculiar to 

 itself upon the nasal organ ? The odour may be 

 pleasant or offensive, but both cannot surely be 

 constituted similarly to influence so differently : 

 separate organs may be stimulated by a scent, and 

 others not affected by it, and hence a peculiar smell 

 perceived ; but still it must be an existent body, made 

 up of parts, that accomplishes all this. But here, 

 like other human investigations upon final causes, 

 we lose ourselves in impenetrable darkness, and the 

 mere effect alone remains. The peculiar smell 

 arising from hay has been thought to proceed from 

 the vernal grass growing in the crop, and it certainly 

 at times does communicate its fragrance to the dried 

 herbage ; but yet it cannot exclusively give this 

 well-known odour, as grasses cut down late in the 

 year, when every blade of the anthoxanthum has 



