168 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



trace in a gaseous form of a drop of oil of roses* is sufficient to 

 produce in our nostrils the impression of a pleasant odour. The 

 smallest particle of musk is capable of imparting its characteristic 

 smell to our clothes for years, the strongest current of air being 

 insufficient to drive it away ; and Valentin has calculated that 

 we are able to perceive about the three-one-hundred millionth of 

 a grain of musk. The delicacy of our sense of smell thus far 

 surpasses that of the other senses.f If, on the other hand, the 

 evil smelling properties of the Skunk J — the enfans du diable 

 of Gabriel Sagard-Theodat§ — tend to make it avoided by animals 



* Great variety is found in the scent of distinct roses. Kerner and 

 Oliver state that the various species of the rose genus may be recognized at 

 once by their peculiar scent. The perfume of Bosa centifolia is the one 

 which in particular is understood by the rose-scent, but it is very different 

 from that of B. alpina ; and the latter, in its turn, is unlike any of the scents 

 emitted by B. arvensis, B. gallica, B. indica, &c. B. nasterana has a scent 

 strongly resembling that of pinks, while B. lute a andi?. jpunica are notorious 

 for their disagreeable smell. Now the hybrid roses emit odours in which the 

 scents of the parent species are merged together in a great variety of ways. 

 Usually the scent of the stock predominates, and there is only a suggestion 

 of the other. Sometimes, however, an entirely new scent is evolved from 

 the fusion of the two, as in the case, for instance (according to Macfarlane), 

 in Hedychium sadlerianum, the hybrid between H. gardnerianum and H. 

 coronarium ; and, again, in other cases, one of the component odours is 

 intensified, and the other is extinguished (' Natural History Plants,' vol. ii. 

 p. 566). — If we may consider the different scents as at all equivalent in num- 

 ber to the different races or varieties of roses, then we are face to face with a 

 most complicated phenomenon ; for, acoording to the previously quoted 

 authorities, on an average, sixty newly-bred roses come into the market 

 yearly ; in the year 1889 the number even amounted to 115 ! A rose culti- 

 vator at Meidling, near Vienna, grows in his garden nearly 4200 different 

 kinds of roses, and yet he is still far from possessing all the forms which have 

 been produced in recent times (chiefly by French growers) by crossing one 

 with another. According to his estimate, the number of tea and Indian roses 

 alone is nearly 1400, and the total number of all the different roses which 

 the trade has produced up to the present day (1895) amounts to 6400. It 

 would certainly appear that the scents emitted by plants are not universally 

 of an attractive purpose. " The scent which the mosses exhale is found in no 

 other group of plants. The same is true of ferns " {ibid. p. 615). 



f Bernstein, ' The Five Senses of Man,' p. 289. 



\ The North American Skunks have recently been studied and their 

 zoological position revised by Arthur H. Howell (' North American Fauna,' 

 No. 20, 1901), who has placed them in the genus Chincha, Lesson, and 

 enumerated seventeen species or subspecies. 



§ ' Histoire du Canada,' p. 748 (1636). 



