48 Woodside. 



pleasing or the reverse to our own sense of smell, is of ad- 

 vantage to the plant, or subserves the purpose of attracting 

 attention to it, we must, I think, be forced to admit. 



We have considered how frequently plants with incon- 

 spicuous flowers are provided with the most powerful odours, 

 but it would appear also that flowers with the sweetest per- 

 fumes are frequently also those of the simplest colours. In 

 the progress of the development of colour in flowers, the order 

 in which the colours are arranged, commencing with green 

 as a base, is usually as follows : green, yellow, white, pink, 

 red, blue green being considered the primary or simplest 

 colour in floral development. 



Few of our sweet-scented flowers are blue in colour. Of 

 course we call to mind at once the violet and bluebell, but it 

 is difficult to find many others. Among the reds we get 

 more, but the number is still comparatively small. It is the 

 white flowers, and those with the tints of pink and yellow 

 scarcely removed from white, which give the greatest num- 

 ber of our most deliciotisly scented flowers. The narcissus, 

 lily of the valley, meadow sweet and clover at once occur to- 

 ns among the white ones ; the honeysuckle and primrose,, 

 among the yellow ; the wild rose, among the pink. 



The odours of flowers appear to become more powerful 

 in damp weather, probably because they are then more 

 readily diffused. It is then that the scent of the sweet-brier 

 is wafted far and wide ; and when we consider that our 

 western winds are usually moister than those from any other 

 quarter, we can readily understand the poet when he sings 

 "Our sweet autumnal western scented wind 



Robs of its odours none so sweet a flower, 

 In all the blooming waste it left behind 

 As that the sweet-brier yields it." 



