| TREES AND SHRUBS. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| each root | |||
| 9,576 | Firs (roots) | at 3d. | £119 |
| 1,152 | Laurels | „ 3d. | 14 |
| 23,040 | Myrtles | „ 4d. | 384 |
| 2,160 | Rhododendrons | „ 9d. | 81 |
| 2,304 | Lilacs | „ 4d. | 38 |
| 2,880 | Box | „ 2d. | 24 |
| 21,888 | Heaths | „ 4d. | 364 |
| 2,880 | Broom | „ 1d. | 12 |
| 6,912 | Furze | „ 1d. | 28 |
| 6,480 | Laurustinus | „ 8d. | 216 |
| 25,920 | Southernwood | „ 1d. | 108 |
| Total annually spent | £1,388 | ||
| FLOWERS IN POTS. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| per pot | |||
| 38,880 | Moss Roses | at 4d. | £648 |
| 38,880 | China ditto | „ 2d. | 324 |
| 38,800 | Fuschias | „ 3d. | 485 |
| 12,850 | Geraniums and Pelargoniums (of all kinds) | „ 3d. | 160 |
| Total annually | £1,617 | ||
The returns give the following aggregate amount of street expenditure:—
| £ | |
|---|---|
| Trees and shrubs | 1,388 |
| Cut Flowers | 6,277 |
| Flowers in pots | 1,667 |
| Flower roots | 2,867 |
| Branches | 2,774 |
| Seeds | 200 |
| £15,173 |
From the returns we find that of “cut flowers” the roses retain their old English favouritism, no fewer than 1,628,000 being annually sold in the streets; but locality affects the sale, as some dealers dispose of more violets than roses, because violets are accounted less fragile. The cheapness and hardihood of the musk-plant and marigold, to say nothing of their peculiar odour, has made them the most popular of the “roots,” while the myrtle is the favourite among the “trees and shrubs.” The heaths, moreover, command an extensive sale,—a sale, I am told, which was unknown, until eight or ten years ago, another instance of the “fashion in flowers,” of which an informant has spoken.
STREET-SELLERS OF GREEN STUFF.
Under this head I class the street-purveyors of water-cresses, and of the chickweed, groundsel, plantain, and turf required for cage-birds. These purveyors seem to be on the outskirts, as it were, of the costermonger class, and, indeed, the regular costers look down upon them as an inferior caste. The green-stuff trade is carried on by very poor persons, and, generally, by children or old people, some of the old people being lame, or suffering from some infirmity, which, however, does not prevent their walking about with their commodities. To the children and infirm class, however, the turf-cutters supply an exception. The costermongers, as I have intimated, do not resort, and do not let their children resort, to this traffic. If reduced to the last shift, they will sell nuts or oranges in preference. The “old hands” have been “reduced,” as a general rule, from other avocations. Their homes are in the localities I have specified as inhabited by the poor.
I was informed by a seller of birds, that he thought fewer birds were kept by poor working-people, and even by working-people who had regular, though, perhaps, diminished earnings, than was the case six or eight years ago. At one time, it was not uncommon for a young man to present his betrothed with a pair of singing-birds in a neat cage; now such a present, as far as my informant’s knowledge extended—and he was a sharp intelligent man—was but rarely made. One reason this man had often heard advanced for poor persons not renewing their birds, when lost or dead, is pitiful in its plainness—“they eat too much.” I do not know, that, in such a gift as I have mentioned, there was any intention on the part of the lover to typify the beauty of cheerfulness, even in a very close confinement to home. “I can’t tell, sir,” was said to me, “how it may have been originally, but I never heard such a thing said much about, though there’s been joking about the matter, as when would the birds have young ones, and such like. No, sir; I think it was just a fashion.” Contrary to the custom in more prosperous establishments, I am satisfied, that, among the labouring classes, birds are more frequently the pets of the men than of the women. My bird-dealing informant cited merely his own experience, but there is no doubt that cage-birds are more extensively kept than ever in London; consequently there is a greater demand for the “green stuff” the birds require.