144 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Touch and taste are intimately connected, and both taste and 
smell together form what we call flavour, aroma, or 
bouquet. 
So also we like to connect seeing and hearing at the opera or 
theatre or concert, nay, even at lectures, where we call in the aid 
of lantern slides or diagrams when actual things themselves are 
not available. Some day we shall be able to show you different 
odours on the screen, and I am sorry that I cannot so show you 
some of them to-day. 
Sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing have all been gratified 
at once from the earliest civilised times in all countries. 
Things “ pleasant to the eye and good for food ” have always 
been an attraction since the days of Eden, and are sure of a 
ready sale in our markets of to-day. But, after all, the primitive 
senses, noble as they are, are not everything. Even our very 
highest sensual education is merely instinct, and instinct is a 
blind and unreasoning expression of animal feeling : “ Man 
cannot live by bread alone ” ; “ Let him who hath two loaves of 
bread sell one and buy flowers of the Narcissus, for bread is food 
for the body, but Narcissus is food for the soul.” Feed a man as 
you will; clothe him in fine linen, purple, and gold ; give him 
wine and music and all other luxuries, and he will ask for “ the 
feast of reason and the flow of soul.” He will ask you for 
brotherly sympathy and human fellowship, for “ a temple not 
made with hands.” 
Flower Odours Positive ; Leaf Odours Negative. 
Flower perfumes, as we have said, are positive, being mostly 
given off whether we like it or not, and some people are so 
extremely sensitive to perfumes that those of Hyacinths, Nar¬ 
cissus, some Lilies (especially L. auratum), and even Roses 
prove disagreeable, and at times actually injurious. We are told 
that “ one dog’s meat is another dog’s poison,” and floral odours 
that delight some people prove extremely disagreeable to others ; 
and though “aromatic pain ” of this kind may not actually kill 
folks it is none the less a nuisance for the time it must be 
endured. To all those who suffer from strong floral perfumes I 
can strongly recommend the more negative qualities of fragrant 
leaves. 
