62 ACRIMONY OF THE ARUM. 



logy between the smell and colours of flowers, nor are 

 they all that might be pointed out. A variety of the 

 Chrysanthemum indicum*, Curt. Mag. t. 327, with 

 orange-coloured flowers, was procured from China by 

 the late Lady Amelia Hume. These faintly agree in 

 scent, as they do in colour, with the Wall-flower, 

 Chdranthus Cheiri ; whereas the common purple va- 

 riety of the same Chrysanthemum has a totally diffe- 

 rent and much stronger odour. 



There is, of course, still more analogy between the 

 smell of plants in general and their impression on the 

 palate, insomuch that we are frequently unable to dis- 

 criminate between the two. The taste is commonly 

 more permanent than the smell, but now and then less 

 so. The root of the Arum maculatum, Engl. Bot. 

 t. 1298, for instance, has, when fresh, a most acrid 

 taste and irritating quality, totally lost by drying, when 

 the root becomes simply farinaceous, tasteless and 

 inert ; so that well might learned physicians contrive 

 the " Compound Powder of Arum," to excuse the 

 continuance of its use in medicine, unless they had 

 always prescribed the recent plant. Many curious 

 remarks are to be found in Grew relative to the tastes 

 of plants, and their different modes of affecting our 

 organs. Anatomy of Plants, p. 279 292. 



To all the foregoing secretions of vegetables may be 

 added those on which their various colours depend. 

 We can but imperfectly account for the green so uni- 



* Anthcmis artcmis iff folia, Willd. Sp. PL v. 3. 2184. 



