EVERLASTING FLOWERS. 189 



with a sort of intuitive affection; and, whether savage or civilised, become 

 spell-bound, as it were, under their magic influence. 



Profuse as nature is in the distribution of her choicest gifts, there are 

 yet places on the face of the wide earth where flowers are rare and scanty. 

 In some cases it is a barrenness of soil ; in others, rigidity of climate ; 

 whilst in not a few instances, it is the confined and poisoned atmosphere 

 surrounding the habitations of men that checks and prevents the growth of 

 flowers. 



By a sort of natural law, flowers are most appreciated where they are 

 most difficult to obtain. In all large cities, where the atmosphere is ini- 

 mical to vegetable life, continual efforts are made to supply the demand for 

 flowers by artificial means ; the trade both in plants and bouquets, especially 

 in a place like London, being enormous. Great progress has, indeed, been 

 made of late, in supplying the floral requirements of the metropolis. 

 Costermougers, and other itinerant vendors, have their flower season now, 

 as well as their fish and fruit season ; and bedding plants can be pur- 

 chased late in the spring at most moderate prices. 



The result of all this is visibly apparent in the increased number of neat 

 little gardens, ornamented windows and verandahs, imparting an air of 

 cheerfulness and contentment to our otherwise dingy city ; and in this way 

 exercising a moral influence which can scarcely be over-estimated. 



Yet in spite of the growing demand and increasing supply, the wants of 

 London, in respect of flowers, are not by any means adequately supplied. 

 The rich can always obtain them, but not so the middle classes and the 

 poor, whose taste and desire for flowers is equally great with their more 

 favoured brethren. 



The flower season over, and the price of bouquets rising from 3d. to 5s., 

 or of potted plants from 4d. to 2s. 6d., the great bulk of the population then 

 fall back upon the artificial substitutes. Cambric, wax, paper, shells, 

 feathers, vegetables, &c, are the materials which, worked up with more 

 or less skill, vie with each other in their resemblance to nature's own 

 productions. 



It is surprising that, amidst this universal taste for flowers, and the 

 enormous traffic in the artificial, so little attention has been hitherto be- 

 stowed upon those flowers commonly known as Everlasting, and which are 

 so well adapted for purposes of decoration. 



The general idea seems to be that everlasting flowers are confined to that 

 small yellow variety (Gnaphalium arenarium) known as Immortelles, and 

 occasionally dyed blue and red for the sake of contrast. But, as we shall 

 presently prove, the choice of these flowers is confined within no such 

 narrow limits. 



Everlasting flowers are chiefly, if not entirely, produced by plants be- 

 longing to the natural order Asteracece; but although approximating in 

 form, they vary considerably as to size, and in colour there is almost an 

 unlimited choice, as the following enumeration of a few of them will 

 illustrate. 



