THE FRAGRANT CALLA 15 



In the size and color and general appearance 

 of its flower, as well as of its entire structure, 

 the new calla precisely resembles its fellows. Yet 

 ^ve are surely justified in speaking of so very 

 marked an anomaly as the production of a strong 

 perfume as constituting an important departure 

 from the normal. 



Xo one knows precisely what the chemical 

 changes are that produce the perfume of a 

 flower, or through precisely what transmutation 

 of forces one flower is made to produce an odor 

 quite different from the odor of other flowers. 



But for that matter no one knows just what 

 are the conditions that induce the stimulus that 

 we interpret as an odor of any kind. The sense 

 of smell seems the most mysterious of our senses. 



But whatever these inherent conditions may 

 be, they constitute changes in the intimate 

 structure of the plant itself that must be ad- 

 mitted to be important in character, inasmuch as 

 they have to do with the well-being of the plant, 

 and may even determine — through their appeal 

 or lack of appeal to insects — the perpetuation or 

 the elimination of a species. 



In the case of the scented calla it was perfume 

 that differentiated a particular individual from 

 thousands of other individuals growing in the 

 same plot. 



