FRAGRANT LEAVES v. SWEET-SCENTED 
FLOWERS 
‘¢ Farewell, dear flowers; sweetly your time ye spent, 
Fit while ye lived for smell or ornament, 
And after death for cures.”—George Herbert, ‘‘ Life.” 
INTRODUCTION 
Like most other natural things, the early history of 
perfumes, or odours, is deep down buried in the ages 
of the past. Still we have good and reliable evidence 
to show that they were used by the earliest of civilised 
people on this earth, and we may believe that they were 
employed long before people were very highly civilised, 
since we find them used by savage tribes at the present 
day. History tells us that the Assyrians, Chaldeans, 
and Phcenicians, the Hebrews and Egyptians, the Greeks 
and the Romans, the Gauls and the Celts, and the 
Saxons all used sweet odours in some shape or form. 
By the same token we know that perfumes were used 
by the sturdy Normans and the crafty Moors: all had 
and used choice and rare perfumes on which they set 
great store. The same is especially true of the early 
peoples eastward, as well as westward. Perfumes and 
savoury odours were used by Hindu and by Aztec alike; 
and if a full and true account of perfumes could be 
written to-day, I think we should be a little astonished 
at the great, and even tragic, parts they have played at 
times in the history of the human race. In Shakespeare’s 
time old English gardens were rich in fragrant and 
aromatic herbs, many of which were highly valued in 
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