THE street sale of seeds, I am informed, is smaller than it was , or even years back. reason assigned for this falling off is the superior cheapness of "flowers in pots." At time, I was informed, the poorer classes who were fond of flowers liked to "grow their own mignonette." I told of my informants that I had been assured by a trustworthy man, that in day he had sold penny pots of mignonette: "Not a bit of doubt of it, sir," was the answer, "not a doubt about it; I've heard of more than that sold in a day by a man who set on hands to help him; and that's just where it is. When a poor woman, or poor man either—but its mostly the women—can buy a mignonette pot, all blooming and smelling for , why she won't bother to buy seeds and set them in a box or a pot and wait for them to come into full blow. Selling seeds in the streets can't be done so well now, sir. Any-

None of the street seed-vendors confine themselves to the sale. man, whom I saw, told me that last spring he was penniless, after sickness, and a nurseryman, whom he knew, trusted him worth of seeds, which he continued to sell, trading in nothing else, for or weeks, until he was able to buy some flowers in pots. Though the profit is cent. per cent. on most kinds, a day is accounted "good earnings, on seeds." On wet days there is no sale, and, indeed, the seeds cannot be exposed in the streets. My informant computed that he cleared a week. His customers were principally poor women, who liked to sow mignonette in boxes, or in a garden-border, "if it had ever such a little bit of sun," and who resided, he believed, in small, quiet streets, branching off from the thoroughfares. Of flowerseeds, the street-sellers dispose most largely of mignonette, nasturtium, and the various stocks; and of herbs, the most is done in parsley. of my informants, however, "did best in grass-seeds," which people bought, he said, "to mend their grass-plots with," sowing them in any bare place, and throwing soil loosely over them. Lupin, larkspur, convolvulus, and Venus's looking-glass had a fair sale.

The street-trade, in seeds, would be less than it is, were it not that the dealers sell it in smaller quantities than the better class of shopkeepers. The street-traders buy their seeds by the quarter of a pound—or any quantity not considered retail—of the nurserymen, who often write the names for the costers on the paper in which the seed has to be inclosed. Seed that costs , the street-seller makes into penny lots. "Why, yes, sir," said man, in answer to my inquiry, "people is often afraid that our seeds ain't honest. If they're not, they're mixed, or they're bad, before they come into our hands. I don't think any of our chaps does anything with them."

or years ago, although seeds, generally, were to per cent. dearer than they are now, there was twice the demand for them. An average price of good mignonette seed, he said, was now the quarter of a pound, and it was then to The shilling's worth, is made, by the street-seller, into or pennyworths. An average price of parsley, and of the cheaper seeds, is less than half that of mignonette. Other seeds, again, are not sold to the street-people by the weight, but are made up in sixpenny and shilling packages. Their extreme lightness prevents their being weighed to a customer. Of this class are, the African marigold, the senecios (groundsel), and the china-aster; but of these compound flowers, the street-traders sell very few. Poppy-seed used to be in great demand among the street-buyers, but it has ceased to be so. "It's a fine hardy plant, too, sir," I was told, "but somehow, for all its variety in colours, it's gone out of fashion, for fashion runs strong in flowers."

long-established street-seller, who is well known to supply the best seeds, makes for the weeks or so of the season more than twice the weekly average of ; perhaps ; but as he is a shop as well as a stall-keeper, he could not speak very precisely as to the proportionate sale in the street or the shop. This man laughed at the fondness some of his customers manifested for "fine Latin names." "There are some people," he said, "who will buy antirrhinum, and artemisia, and digitalis, and wouldn't hear of snapdragon, or wormwood, or foxglove, though they're the identical plants." The same informant told me that the railways in their approaches to the metropolis had destroyed many small gardens, and had, he thought, injured his trade. It was, also, a common thing now for the greengrocers and corn-chandlers to sell garden-seeds, which until these or years they did much less extensively.

Last spring, I was told, there were not more than persons, in London, selling only seeds. The "root-sellers," of whom I have treated, generally deal in seeds also, but the demand does not extend beyond or weeks in the spring, though there was "a straggling trade that way" or weeks longer. It was computed for me, that there were fully persons selling seeds (with other things) in the streets, and that each might average a profit of weekly, for a month; giving expended in seeds, with profit to the costers. Seeds are rarely hawked as flowers are.

It is impossible to give as minutely detailed an account of the street-sale of seeds as of flowers, as from their diversity in size, weight, quantity in a pennyworth, &c., no calculation can be prepared by weight or measure, only by Thus, I find it necessary to depart somewhat from the order hitherto observed. seedsman, acquainted with the street-trade from his dealings with the vendors, was of opinion that the following list and proportions were as nice an approximation as could be arrived at. It was found necessary to give it in proportions of -fifths; but it must be borne in mind that the in ths of parsley, for exam-