X 



FLORA ODORATA 



the mountains of Asia Minor, mth Lebanon ; trees of the 

 same stately order, perhaps still more fragrant in the warmer 

 Pacific breezes of the Eocky Mountains and Oregon, where 

 the many great Pines spring from a carpet of fragrant ever- 

 greens, and a thousand flowers which fade away after their 

 bloom, and rest in the heat, while the trees overhead distil 

 for ever grateful odour in the sunny air. Myrtle, Eosemary, 

 and Lavender, and all the aromatic bushes and herbs clothing 

 the little capes that jut into the great sea which washes the 

 shores of Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Corsica j garden islands 

 scattered through vast Pacific seas, as stars are scattered in 

 the heavens ; enormous tropical forests, little known to man, 

 and from which he gathers here and there the treasures for 

 our orchid- and greenhouses ; great island conservatories like 

 Java and Ceylon and Borneo, rich in spices and lovely plant 

 life : Australian Bush, with traces of plant life as if from 

 another world, but often most delicate in odour even in the 

 fragments of them we see in our greenhouses. 



It is not only from the fragile flower-vases these sweet 

 odours flow; they breathe through leaf and stem, and the 

 whole being of many trees and bushes, from the stately 

 Gum trees of Australia to the sweet Verbena of Chili. Many 

 must have felt the charm of the strange scent of the Box- 

 bush l)efore Oliver AVenclell Holmes told us of its ' breathing 

 the fragrance of eternity, for this is one of the odours which 

 carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning 

 past.' The scent of flowers is often cloying, as of the 

 Tuberose, while that of leaves is often delightful and refresh- 

 ing, as in the green budding Larch, and in the leaves of Balm 

 and Eosemary, while in many cases fragrance is stored in the 

 wood and permeates down through the roots. 



To but few it is given to see many of these sweet plants 



