132 Zforticuliure a?id Laudscajye Gardening in £Jnffland. 



feather [Pyrethrum), dwarf nasturtium, mignonette, lobelia and coleus are often 

 used for this purpose. While in some of the best kept places, long beds of dark blood- 

 leaved beets were grown for ornamental purposes, and contiguous to other plants, 

 one could hardly imagine they would harmonize and give such richness to the whole. 



IVlndotv Oarileniny, 



There is no doubt that the mass of the English people enjoy and cultivate flowers 

 more generally than the Americans. This fact is demonstrated in the extent that 

 " Window Gardening " is practiced in and about every village, town and city ; among 

 the poor, as well as the rich, are to be seen structures on the window sills, kept con- 

 stantly filled with flowering and ornamental leaved plants through the whole season. 

 In the more wealthy neighborhoods these window structures are elegant in the make 

 and finish, and in places the whole front of a house would seem ablaze with bright 

 colors and climbing vines. Through the mechanics' and laborers' quarters there 

 would be a less gorgeous display ; but even in the most wretched hovels, where the 

 poor are compelled to live, it was quite common to see, in a back alley, on the sill 

 of a window, four or five stories up, a single plant of geranium, or a pot of mignon- 

 ette, that had been carefully tended by its owner. The demand is so large for this 

 class of plants, that they are propagated by the million, and sold at very low rates, 

 when compared with our prices for the same kind and quality of plants. Fuchsias, 

 strong, stocky plants, for twelve cents apiece ; geraniums, balsams, calceolarias, etc., 

 etc., at from four to six cents, or one-sixth of what they would cost here. In London, 

 propagators from the suburbs send thousands of these flowering plants, every morn- 

 ing, to Covent Garden market; from here they are distributed, by men, women and 

 boys, to all parts of the city, each of whom has his own customers, and keeps them 

 supplied with whatever kinds they may want, not only for window decorations, but 

 also for garden culture. 



Where there was such a demand for annuals, there must be some place where the 

 seeds were grown in great quantity. A visit to the flower farm of Dunnett & Beale, 

 at Dedham, Essex county, soon solved this inquiry. Here I saw more than 200 acres, 

 exclusively devoted to raising flower seeds ; and at the time of my visit, the bulk of 

 the past season's crop was in full blossom, presenting a display well worth a trip 

 across the Atlantic to see. This, however, is a mere skeleton of one branch of the 

 commercial florist's business on the other side of the Atlantic. 



I'hie I'laiits. 



A visit to the mammoth establishments of James Veitch & Son,Wm. Bull, E.G. Hen- 

 derson & Co.,Wm, RoUisson & Sons, R. A. Prance, George Jackman & Co.,Wm. Paul, 

 Thomas Rivers, and hundreds of others in the suburbs of London, one can see a choicer 

 and very much more expensive class of plants, where the price of single specimens will 

 range from S5 to $60 apiece, and plenty of demand for this class of stock. I saw in 

 one of these establishments a dozen of large Azaleas sold for $Q0 apiece, to go to St. 

 Petersburgh, for embellishing a banquet hall next season. In another, I saw fifty 

 pot grape vines, in fruit, at S12 apiece, for a dinner party of a wealthy Londoner. 

 Nor were these rare cases ; for one familiar with plants need only examine the stock 

 to judge of its value. The horticultural societies are far-sighted enough to ofl"er 



