Lily of The Valley Phenomenon
See also: bourgeonalThe odor of lily of the valley, specifically the ligand bourgeonal, attracts mammal sperm in a dramatic manner. The 2003 discovery of this phenomenon prompted a new wave of research into odor reception, but no evidence was found that the female sex organ has similar odors of any kind. A 2012 study demonstrated instead that at high concentrations, bourgeonal imitated the role of progesterone in stimulating sperm to swim (chemotaxis), a process unrelated to odor reception.
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“It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be,
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
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Although it fall and die that night;
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In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“The lily in splendor, the vine in her grace,
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As then I had mine, in the place that was happy and poor.”
—Ruth Pitter (b. 1897)
“There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“The expectation that every neurotic phenomenon can be cured may, I suspect, be derived from the layman’s belief that the neuroses are something quite unnecessary which have no right whatever to exist. Whereas in fact they are severe, constitutionally fixed illnesses, which rarely restrict themselves to only a few attacks but persist as a rule over long periods throughout life.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)