ISS 



THE GARDEAEK'S MONTHLY 



[June, 



what I took to be the " wiiHlicr-woinjur' wiv* j 

 always a hiLr.lnirly man, wlio st'cmcd to \w 

 lazily siltiii;^' in tin* strrct door, whili- a do/rn or 

 so of di'licatf j^irls |)lu'(l the imiileinents of 

 tlirir trade within. It did not look rii;ht to see 

 the * washi-r-svonian" havini; so ea-ny a life; but 

 \s Inn I k;i\v him arranj^ini: a little hou(|UCt, and 

 placiiii; .some pretty Hower pots in one of the 

 window.s, I felt sure there must he some ijood in 

 his heart, and I tinally fonnd that he was not 

 the '* woman,'- but the (Mie who took the heavy 

 goods home, and did other unwieldly work. It 

 \va.<« a Wesson how esvsily one who goes hurriedly 

 through a strange land, may be mistaken in his 

 impr(;ssif)ns. and 51 makes me very eareful how 

 I put down my experiences. Hut I think there 

 i-an be no mistaking that the lf)ve of the French 

 people — Parisians at least, for flowers is a very 

 univei*sal one, pervading all cla-sses, from the 

 highest to the lowest alike. The roofs, the win- 

 dows, the backyards — wherever it is possible to 

 «tow away a flower, a flower is found. I was inter- 

 iisted in a small shoe-mending sh<tp. It was so 

 small thej:e seemed scarcely room to '"turn 

 round." A narrow coi bed at the end, indicated 

 that the shop was his " castle" as well. He was 

 sitting on its edge drinking cofTee with a crust — the 

 bread, by the way, being all crust in Paris. It 

 was evident that all the room possible was 

 needed in his little business, but he spared of 

 this treasure for his flowers. He was willing to 

 spend even his alabaster box of ointment on 

 that which he loved, and thus his little window 

 and shelves were full of floral beauty. Of course 

 we can see instances of this i)ure devotion in other 

 lands, oiKX^ in a'while, but I give; it here because 

 it is not exceplional. It is rather the rule in 

 Paris. 



It is on ax^count of this universal love for flowers 

 that the flower maikets are so great a success ; 

 and those who go to Paris without seeing the 

 flower markets lose a great treat. There are a 

 large number of them in dilferent parts of the 

 city. They are given up wholly to flowers. 

 The one I have just now in \\\y mind is in the 

 *• Place Madeleine." The broad square is paved 

 with artificial stone, and very neat iron pillars 

 support a.s neat slate roofs, so as to make shelter 

 from sun and protection from rain, but open on 

 every sidt!. Familiarnamesshowed that thestands 

 were occupied l)y the best classes of French (lor- 

 ists,but the rare and choice plants themselves told 

 an intelligent story, endorsed, as we might say, 

 by the attendants, whom I found to have a 



much mote correct knowledge of the plants they 

 were handling than is usual among the sellers 

 of plants on the street corners, or ordinary 

 markets of other lands. The classes of buyers, 

 too, were evidently hi:,'h. Ladies, elegantly 

 attired, and attended by their servants, were 

 making purcliases as freely as those of more 

 limited means, whose sou wa,s jus much to them 

 as the Napoleon to their neighbors. And it 

 seemed to me that goorl and choice flowers 

 brought higher prices than such do in our coun- 

 try. Of course the poorer class of articles are 

 cheap — very cheap. A bouquet, tolerably well 

 made up of ordinary flowers, I was asked 35 

 centimes for; and as I walked away the sales- 

 woman called after me, " then what will you 

 give me for it?" as if I had liiought the eight 

 or nine cents of our money too much, lint then 

 there were plenty of bouquets that would have 

 taken a dollar and a half or two dollars of our 

 money to buy. Five francs, or a dollar, buy 

 very fair bouquets of half-blown roses. Palms 

 and rare ferns were very common among the 

 higher priced plants, and were found, I was told, 

 to do much better as room-i)lants than the ordi- 

 nar}' flowering things. The most common 

 articles were (it was July) small India rubber 

 plants, Aralia papyrifera. Forget-me-not, Car- 

 nations, Fuchsias, Camellias, Marigolds, CJer- 

 aniums, Jasmines, and among ))retty things in 

 great abundance not so often seen with us, the 

 Eucharidium,aClarkia-like plant; Convolvulus 

 minor, grafted Mesembryanthemums, Veron- 

 icas, Viscaria oculata, and the true double white 

 Oleander. In many cases the growth of the 

 plants would do no discredit to some of our 

 horticultural exhibitions. On one pot of scarlet 

 Verbena 1 noticed twenty heads of flowers, all in 

 beautiful bloom. Candytufts and Venus' Look- 

 ing-Glass, and a hosts of common plants, made 

 up the general view. Cactuses and succulents 

 generally seemed very popular ; our old friend, 

 Rochea falcata, with its beautiful crimson 

 flowers, was quite common, and the Crassula 

 coccinea was a very common plant indeed. The 

 pretty way in which the plants are offered, sets 

 the market off. Many of the pots are washed 

 clean, and enveloped in pure white paper, the 

 leaves and flowers peeping out of the top like 

 (he fabled fruits from the mouth of the cornu- 

 copia, gilding even the Lily, and adding fresh 

 beauty to the handsomest flowers. The market 

 is thickly planted with the Pawlownia, our JJlue 

 Trumpet tree, and is an agreeable change from 



