The flower is the poetry of reproduction.
It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.
~Jean Giraudoux
A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile,
available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar.
Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force,
all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.
We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages,
we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.
- Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, p. 13
Stamen
