NEWS OF SPRING 



finitely varied tortures inflicted upon them to force them at 

 length to surrender the treasure which they desperately con- 

 ceal in their corollas. It will suffice, to give an idea of the 

 executioner's cunning and the obstinacy of some of the victims, 

 to recall the pangs of the cold enfleurage which certain flow- 

 ers — the jonquil, the mignonette, the tuberose and the jasmine 

 — are made to endure before they break silence; and I may 

 mention, in passing, that the scent of the jasmine is the only 

 one that is not to be imitated, the only one that cannot be ob- 

 tained by an ingenious blending of other odours. 



Large plates of glass are coated with a bed of white fat 

 two fingers deep ; and the whole is thickly covered with flow- 

 ers. As the result of what hypocritical manceuvres, of what 

 unctuous promises does the fat obtain their irrevocable con- 

 fidences? The fact remains that soon the too-trusting flowers 

 have nothing left to lose. Forthwith, each morning, they are 

 removed and thrown on the rubbish-heap; and a fresh batch 

 of innocents takes their place on the insidious couch. These 

 yield in their turn and undergo the same fate; more and yet 

 more follow them. It is not until the end of three months, 

 that is after devouring ninety successive generations of flow- 

 ers, that the greedy and captious fat, saturated with fragrant 



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