Mindy Jester, age 10, of Greenwood, Ind., for her question:

What makes flowers smell so sweet?

Roses and many other garden flowers give off heavy fragrances and even many wayside wild flowers wear delicate perfumes. Like lovely ladies, each flower has its own sweet scent, different from all the rest. The secret is locked in oily chemicals that tend to turn into vapors. When this happens, the gassy vapors drift into the warm summer air, carrying their lingering perfumes with them.

The perfumes of a flower are stored in small pockets among the ce11s of the petals. The plant manufactures them with chemicals from the soil and basic sugars made with air, water and sunshine. The warm sun makes lightweight oils in the fragrant mixtures change into gaseous vapors and the airy breezes carry their sweet scents to our noses.