Culture | The smell of success

The ingenuity of plants and people lies behind fragrances

Elise Vernon Pearlstine sniffs out the story in “Scent”

A Sparkling Violetear (Colibri coruscans) drinks nectar from a Red Hot Poker flower (Kniphofia) in Achoma town park.On Saturday, 9 April, 2022, in Achoma, Colca Canyon, Province of Caylloma, Department of Arequipa, Peru. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance. By Elise Vernon Pearlstine. Yale University Press; 272 pages; $28 and £20

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “By the noses”

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