Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-07-01
Miscellany.
The Loves or the Flowers.

A scientific writer has knocked from
under our feet another aesthetic prop.
Hitherto it has been taught in all prop
erly orthodox Sunday Schools, and IN
all poetic sermons by gushing young
divines, and by all poets with an eye to
nature and beauty, that the color and
OdOr of flowers were expressly designed
to please the eye and the olfactOries of
men and women. 1t is now, however,
asserted and quite cOnclusively demon
strated that the OdOrs and tints of vege-
tation have quite different, as well as
very practical, commonplace, al
though an ingenious, mission. They
are not to please the eye or pleasantly
excite the nasal organs of man, but are
designed solely to attract the attention
of insects.
As is generally known by all intelli
gent people, the operation of fecunda-
tiOn among the flora is, in u majority
of cases. accomplished by the transfer
of pollen from the male to the female
plant. One of the agencies depended
ON by nature for carrying this pollen is
the wind; but, as everybody knows, the
wind is not a reliable institution. Ma
ture evidently understood this; and,
hence, she resolved not to rely wholly
upon a means whose action cannot al
ways be relied on. She therefore
created bees, and other insects, and i'm
planted in them the taste for honey.
She then proceeded to distill in each
flower drop of nectar, and SO arranged
it that the sweet would become avail
able at about the time the pollen would
he ready for distribution. Moreover.
she made certain flowers gorgeous in
.nlnr and fro raut with arnma The
insect, in search of honey and attracted
by the rich cOlOrs and the Odors, enters
the fiOwercup,a and in burrOwing around
it for sweets, his jacket becomes dusty
with pollen. Passing on another
flower, more burrOwing and mousing
about dusts his OvercOat of some of the
formulating pollen, which falls upon
the required place. 1t is thus that Mon
sieur Anther wOOs and puts himself III
communication with Mile. Stigma; and
it is thus that nature generates and
perpetuates her flower children. No
clasping of hands here, no sweet pro-
pinquity of wOOing; no gathering of
honey from scarlet lips as occurs among
the SONS and daughters of men. Hus-
band and wife among the flowers dwell
apart. The gorgeous and fragrant lord
of harem never gazes upon his houris,
but sends them his alteration. and love
tokens by eunuch-winds, or by chance
messengers who stroll along in search
of sweets
Ii is further urged by the scientist
who prOmulgates this theory that self
formulating plants are cOlOrless and
OdOrless-and which, as n matter of
poetic retribution, they ought to be.
He further shows that, in cases of
plants having an offensive odOr, there
are insects which are attracted by it
notably the case of the carriOn flower,
which attracts to it a certain buZzard-
class of insects, which visit it under the
impression that il is decaying meat.
Deceived by the foul OdOr, the carriOn-
fly enters the cOrOlla and performs its
work, before it discovers that it is hum
bugged-engaged, as it were, on false
scent.
As intimated before, the scheme is
ingenious rather than pOetical. ColOrs
are not to delight the eye of man, but
to attract the bulging optics of some
numbering bumble-bee, and to secure
his unwilling assistance IN & clandes-
tine liasOn between some modest, VIZ
ginal violet, and some raklsh swash-
buckler, the gorgeous lord OF some
distant glade. Nevertheless, the theory
takes nothing from the element of
"contrivance" so much insisted on by
orthodox believers. In fact. it rather
adds to it, for the reason that there is
broader and much more comprehensive
plan in this explanation of the uses of
colOrs and OdOrs, than in the one which
limits their use tOsimply attracting and
delighting the senses of man. Again,
however, the same theory Is unortho-
dox, in that it asserts that plants are
undergoing evOlutiOn-cOlor and fra
GRANGE being the developments and
calculated to aid formulation, which,
earlier i'm the existence of the flora, WAS
secured by ampler means.-New York
Times.