Abstract
THE total disappearance within recent years of the scent of musk, Mimulus moschatus Dougl., is one of the most puzzling of plant phenomena. A native of North America, it was introduced into Great Britain from British Columbia in 1826 by the botanist David Douglas. It quickly became a garden favourite, and the yellow, rather insignificant flowers are still a familiar sight in cottage windows. The plant has become naturalised in certain parts of the British Isles and in New Zealand, where it was taken by the early settlers. At the beginning of the present century, the sweet-smelling musk was hawked from door to door in London suburbs. So far as records are available, it appears that the loss of fragrance was first noticed in Britain in 1909, when a well-known nurseryman asked: “Is there such a thing now as a common Musk with the old Musk perfume—Many friends of mine contend that there is not, and I myself am sceptical.” Vilmorin, however, in “Les Plantes de Pleine Terre” (fifth edition, 1909), describes the musk as a “petite plante poilue et visqueuse, exhalant une forte odeur musquee, qui se sent a une grande distance”, which suggests that the ‘mutation’ had not been noticed in France at that date, and there is evidence that in some localities the failure to produce the characteristic perfume was not generally apparent until after 1916.
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The Lost Fragrance of Musk. Nature 134, 54–55 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134054a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134054a0