The Scented Calla 



How Fragrance Was Instilled 

 In a Scentless Flower 



NOT long ago a young woman visitor who 

 had learned that the function of odor in 

 flowers is to attract bees and other insects 

 made a remark at once naive and wise. 



"It seems wonderful," she said, "that bees 

 and other insects should have the same taste in 

 perfumes that we human beings have. The rose 

 and the apple blossom are sweet to them as 

 well as to us; whereas one might expect that 

 they would care for something quite different, 

 especially when we remember that cultivated 

 people generally like more delicate perfumes than 

 those that please uncultivated people." 



This remark, as I said, was at once wise and 

 naive. 



It was wise because it showed a tendency to 

 seek causes for things in nature instead of taking 

 them for granted as most people are prone to do. 



[Volume II — Chapter III] 



