Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1884 — Flowers in Mexico. [ARTICLE]

Flowers in Mexico.

Mexico is the greatest flower-market in the world. * All the year round, the gardens bring forth brilliant blossoms —the fragile, beautiful children of this tropic zone. ' All historians who write of the Mexicans as Mexicans, speak of their love of flowers as one of their principal characteristics. Nor is this trait diminished in the present generation- From the days before the cruel conquest, all through that merciless time, when the Mexicans bore the heavy yoke under. their, violent masters, the Spaniards; they remained faithful to their love of flowers; the passion is innate. During even the coldest days that are known in this mild climate, one may go to market and find the simple Indians seated on the sidewalks with their baskets of flowers. I have seen them sitting thus closely together for a whole block offering "lit almost ridiculously low, prices great bundles of ptoses, Heliotropes,Violets, Geraniums, Heartsease, Pink., and, in short, almost numberless varieties. For 25 cents, one may nearly always buy a large, elegant-ly-arranged bouquet, composed of the most exquisite flowers, the .price of which, in New York, would vary, ac-.

cording to the season, from $3 to $5 or $6. In the full flower season one may often buy, for 6£ cents, as many flowers as disposed of in a parlor of ordinary size. Many of the wild flowers ;are of exquisite beauty, rivaling the choicest garden plants; in fact, many of them are among our finest greenhouse plants.— San Francisco Tribune.