> How bad was the air back then, was it really so bad that a plant couldn't grow? That notion seems unbelievable.
It could be absolutely dire in the cities. When every house and office is using coal in open fires for heating the consequences are fairly obvious.
According to https://ourworldindata.org/london-air-pollution London had nearly 600 micrograms per cubic metre of particulates in the early C19th. That came with similarly outrageous levels of Sulphur Dioxide, which dissolved in moisture to make it acidic.
Only especially hardy plants could cope with this. Hence the tendency for middle class families to grow aspidistra as a house plant ("keep the aspidistra flying" as George Orwell once wrote) - it was one of the few plants that would tolerate the pollution.
If you wanted to grow anything delicate you did it in a case or somewhere outside London.
It could be absolutely dire in the cities. When every house and office is using coal in open fires for heating the consequences are fairly obvious.
According to https://ourworldindata.org/london-air-pollution London had nearly 600 micrograms per cubic metre of particulates in the early C19th. That came with similarly outrageous levels of Sulphur Dioxide, which dissolved in moisture to make it acidic.
Only especially hardy plants could cope with this. Hence the tendency for middle class families to grow aspidistra as a house plant ("keep the aspidistra flying" as George Orwell once wrote) - it was one of the few plants that would tolerate the pollution.
If you wanted to grow anything delicate you did it in a case or somewhere outside London.