BULB BARNS, NAMES, AND GROWERS 109 



vase of them in the window in blooming time. 

 And this, surely, argues a real love of flowers, when 

 one comes to think that they are in themselves 

 neither rare nor valuable here, many of the cut 

 blooms thrown away almost as much as the poppies 

 in our English corn-fields. Of course a certain 

 number of the flowers are sold in Dutch towns — as 

 in the towns of other countries, some few growers 

 even may grow a small quantity for that special 

 purpose. But, again, in the purchasing of them, the 

 charge that the working- classes have no esthetic 

 love of flowers would seem to be negated, for, 

 though the prices of cut flowers, considering the 

 quantity grown, are relatively high, many of the 

 purchasers are workmen. One sees them on pay- 

 day carrying home their purchases with the same 

 evident care and admiration that one sees similarly 

 bestowed by the better class of English mechanics 

 and workmen, when on Saturdays they carry home 

 the bunches of wallflower and violets that they 

 buy in the streets. 



There are in Holland, besides the workmen and 

 the great growers, others concerned in the bulb 

 industry, a whole lot of very small growers, simple 

 folk, who for the most part live in the numerous 

 little villages around Haarlem, Alkmaar, and 



