lilacs were in bloom and the bush-honeysuckles and the strawberries.
Though no movement of the air was perceptible, the lilacs well knew the
way of the wind, for if I stood to the north of them the odour was less
rich and free than to the south, and I thought I might pose as a prophet
of wind and weather upon the basis of this easy magic, and predict that
the breezes of the day would be from the north--as, indeed, they later
appeared to be.

I went from clump to clump of the lilacs testing and comparing them with
great joy and satisfaction. They vary noticeably in odour; the white
varieties being the most delicate, while those tending to deep purple
are the richest. Some of the newer double varieties seem less
fragrant--and I have tested them now many times--than the old-fashioned
single varieties which are nearer the native stock. Here I fancy our
smooth Jacob has been at work, and in the lucrative process of selection
for the eye alone the cunning horticulturist has cheated us of our
rightful heritage of fragrance. I have a mind some time to practise the
art of burbankry or other kind of wizardy upon the old lilac stock and
select for odour alone, securing ravishing original varieties--indeed,
whole new gamuts of fragrance.

I should devise the most animating names for my creations, such as the
Double Delicious, the Air of Arcady, the Sweet Zephyr, and others even
more inviting, which I should enjoy inventing. Though I think surely I
could make my fortune out of this interesting idea, I present it freely
to a scent-hungry world--here it is, gratis!--for I have my time so
fully occupied during all of this and my next two or three lives that I
cannot attend to it.

I have felt the same defect in the cultivated roses. While the odours