Musk is the product of glands of the male _Moschus moschiferus_ which
correspond to preputial sebaceous glands; castoreum is the product of
similar sexual glands in the beaver, and civet likewise from the civet;
ambergris is an intestinal calculus found in the rectum of the
cachelot.[53] Not only, however, are nearly all the perfumes of animal
origin, in use by civilized man, odors which have a specially sexual
object among the animals from which they are derived, but even the
perfumes of flowers may be said to be of sexual character. They are given
out at the reproductive period in the lives of plants, and they clearly
have very largely as their object an appeal to the insects who secure
plant fertilization, such appeal having as its basis the fact that among
insects themselves olfactory sensibility has in many cases been developed
in their own mating.[54] There is, for example, a moth in which both sexes
are similarly and inconspicuously marked, but the males diffuse an
agreeable odor, said to be like pineapple, which attracts the females.[55]
If, therefore, the odors of flowers have developed because they proved
useful to the plant by attracting insects or other living creatures, it is
obvious that the advantage would lie with those plants which could put
forth an animal sexual odor of agreeable character, since such an odor
would prove fascinating to animal creatures.
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