Scents of Flowers 
to the flowers. In support of this contention 
it is urged that the most highly scented flowers 
are not usually the most conspicuous ones, since 
it is not necessary for a flower to be both highly 
coloured and strongly scented. Again, those 
flowers which open at night are usually very 
highly scented. 
Plausible though this view seems, there are 
weighty objections to it. These are so admirably 
summarised by Kay Robinson in the issue of 
The Country-Side for March 27, 1909, that we 
feel we cannot do better than reproduce his 
words :— 
“Tt is true that many flowers which are 
strongly scented are visited by insects, but these 
flowers have abundance of nectar, and the insects 
come in spite of the scent, and not on account of 
it. They visit unscented flowers, provided that 
they have nectar, equally freely; and they do 
not visit flowers which have scent without nectar. 
“Moreover, fruits are more generally scented 
even than flowers; but what explanation have 
those, who attribute the scents of flowers to the 
tastes of insects, for the scents of fruits? Insects 
which visit fruits are only robbers. Therefore, 
if we say that plants have scents for the purpose 
of attracting insects, we accuse all plants which 
have scented fruits of attempted suicide. 
“ There are hosts of plants, again, with scented 
leaves. Here also the insects are only robbers, 
265 
