38 BOOK OF THE SCENTED GARDEN 
and cotton in a piece of coloured underwear if you know 
how,” said another man. ‘‘ Men who have made the 
subject a speciality can do this by holding the cloth in 
the light and looking along it. The cotton and wool 
can be distinguished by the difference in their colours, 
which exists, although the same dye was used for both. 
The untrained eye could hardly detect the fact that the 
cloth had two shades, but the skill that comes from long 
practice makes the thing simple.” 
ScIENTIFIC NEGLECT oF OpourR 
It is curious to note how careful botanists have been to 
tell us the shapes of leaves and the arrangement and 
number of sepals, petals, and stamens of flowers; while 
in the great majority of cases such vital matters (to the 
flowers and ourselves) as colour and perfume have been 
totally ignored. Nowadays, however, we are all most 
anxious to know not only what plants are, but more 
especially what they do, and how they do it. We are 
beginning to perceive that colour and perfume are quite 
as essential as are the organs that produce them; that 
physics and physiology must be studied together, since 
the end is greater in importance than is the means. 
Mr Edison and others have said that the human mind 
can scarcely grasp the fairy-like sensitiveness of the 
micro-tasimeter to heat and moisture. ‘‘ The conditions 
relating to the registration of moisture belong properly 
to the province of the odoroscope, which is a modification 
of the tasimeter,! and so named primarily from its ability 
to measure odours quite inappreciable to the unaided 
senses.”—‘‘ The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva 
Edison,” by W. K. L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson. 
London: Chatto and Windus. 1894. Pp. 113, 114. 
As colours really appear different to different observers, 
so also do odours and perfumes. If you ask ten different 
1 Measures 1,000,o00th part of a degree Fahrenheit. 
