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president’s address. 
of heat. Fruity scents benefit some plants by attracting from 
a distance insects and animals which help the distribution of small 
seeds which are imbedded in fleshy fruits, like the Fig and the 
Strawberry. Some fungoid scents are of this kind, as that of the 
Cantharellus cibarius with its odour of Apricots, but most of them 
are of a starchy or foetid character. 
But when we have considered all these aids to plants, there 
remain many cases in which it is difficult to perceive how the 
plants are benefited by their odours, for instance the scented ferns 
and the grasses which are odoriferous only when dying. We are 
conscious of something beyond all this, and would fain fall back 
on the ancient belief that the green herb was made for the service 
of man, and that part of that service is rendered by perfumes. 
How rendered we will next consider. 
Some scents are useful for their medicinal virtues, as in the Hop 
pillow, a specific for insomnia. The narcotic scents of Poppy heads 
and Camomile are well known ; and the vapour of Hellebore has 
a purgative effect. In times past, plants with scented leaves and 
stems were much used as disinfectants, for which they were put 
in coffins before burial, and sprigs of Rue were placed near the 
judges to ward off jail fever; again the smell of camphor has 
long been considered a prophylactic. If not germicides, such 
scents are certainly insecticides ; and pleasant odours often keep off 
noisome pests. 
It is chiefly in nervous complaints that the benefits of vegetable 
scents are noticeable. Pliny speaks of the curative properties of 
perfumes in such cases, and there can be no doubt that a nice smell 
improves the temper. Thus Gerard says of the Violet, “ the mind 
conceiveth a certain pleasure and recreation by smelling and 
handling those most odoriferous flowers ; ” and the scent of Borage 
leaves is reviving and exhilarating, hence their use in claret cup. 
We appreciate the flavour of much that we eat and drink by 
the olfactory nerve alone, for we are often smelling when we think 
we are tasting. The odours from some resins are beneficial, and the 
fortune of a noted watering-place was made by the smell of its 
Pine woods. May the time be near when physicians shall prescribe 
