The lily
seems to me a very sensual flower, while the rose and its scent seem very
good and countrified and virtuous. Shelley's description of the lily of
the valley, 'whom youth makes so fair and _passion_ so pale,' falls in
much more with my ideas. "I can quite understand," she adds, "that
leather, especially of books, might have an exciting effect, as the smell
has this _penetrating_ quality, but I do not think it produces any special
feeling in me." This more sensuous character of white flowers is fairly
obvious to many persons who do not experience from them any specifically
sexual effects. To some people lilies have an odor which they describe as
sexual, although these persons may be quite unaware that Hindu authors
long since described the vulvar secretion of the _Padmini_, or perfect
woman, during coitus, as "perfumed like the lily that has newly
burst."[75] It is noteworthy that it was more especially the white
flowers--lily, tuberose, etc.--which were long ago noted by Cloquet as
liable to cause various unpleasant nervous effects, cardiac oppression and
syncope.[76]
When we are concerned with the fragrances of flowers it would seem that we
are far removed from the human sexual field, and that their sexual effects
are inexplicable.
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