54 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
When some competitor had won a prize, she would weave a 
garland and sell it to an admirer that he might crown the 
victor with a wreath of flowers. 
That seems to be about the first account we have of sell- 
ing flowers. We are left in ignorance of any thing before 
this time, but this serves to show that this profession of 
ours is one of very early date. Some go back and say that 
Adam was a market gardener, but I think that he rather 
ran a kind of combined zoological and horticultural garden 
than a market garden or a florist’s business. At any rate 
we give to this young lady of the legend the credit of be- 
ing the pioneer commercial florist of the world. And there 
are some little incidents of this legend very similar, indeed, 
to our every-day experience nowadays. It was only a short 
time after this lady started in the business of floriculture 
that a rival came along—a rival from a neighboring town 
or city of Byzante, now known as Constantinople: and this 
young man, like the young men of to-day, I presume, saw 
that there was money in this commercial florist’s business 
and so he set up in the business himself, close alongside of 
this young lady. Very much as, to-day, when a commer- 
cial florist starts in business in acertain location, somebody 
comes along pretty soon and starts up next door, or across 
the way. 
The disposition of the people at that time was very much 
the same as it is now, because there was friction very soon 
created between the two. Possibly they had not studied 
that higher law of business, that the more opposition or 
competition there is in a business the greater amount there 
will be of that business. Those who are better informed, 
I think, believe it is better to have a number engaged in 
the same profession, although we find that same friction to- 
day. Well, this young man that came along there and 
started up in the business rather displeased the young lady, 
and she, like most young ladies of the present day, had a 
lover, and he would come around at evenings, I suppose, 
after he had done his day’s work, and finished the chores, 
