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obstinate tendency to seek the Elysian fields or else to 

 revert to the normal has made this section the despair of 

 most cultivators. Of the sixteen forms found wild, only five 

 were of permanent or constant character, the rest producing 

 a varying proportion oipnlchevriinmn fronds among a number 

 of normal ones. Of Mrs. Thompson's form, which was 

 one of the most beautiful when in character. Colonel Jones 

 said : " You only get a really good frond about once in ten 

 years ; in average seasons two or three pinnae in character 

 are as much as can be expected." This kind of behaviour 

 might be reasonably expected to damp the ardour of the 

 most devoted admirer, but the fact remains that it did not 

 do so, as I think all those who ever had plants of any 

 pulchervimnm kept them as long as any hope remained of 

 good, or even decent, behaviour. I have myself a plant 

 which was once Mrs. Thompson's pulcherrimum, but which 

 has remained consistently a normal angulave for more than 

 twenty years. Mr. Wollaston, I believe, kept, to the time 

 of his death, a renegade plant of Padley's find as " a monu- 

 ment of fallen greatness." Mr. Wollaston, mighty hunter 

 though he was, never found a pulcJievriinnm, although I 

 believe it was his greatest ambition to do so. ]\Ir. Wills 

 found two inconstant forms and one, a great beauty, which 

 in some hands remained constant for many years, but there 

 was always the danger that individual plants would drop 

 their character like a mask and go on as normal angulave. 

 Having once fallen, they never, I believe, repented or 

 achieved reform. While in character Wills's was always a 

 rather difficult plant to please. It would appear robust and 

 luxuriant for one season, and the next would sulk in spite 

 of the most persuasive coaxing, and would not unfrequently 

 die in these fits of depression. The appearance of a normal 

 frond was always the signal for a return to physical health, 

 and also almost invariably the prelude to complete moral 

 degradation. I struggled with its moods and caprices for 

 many years, but for the last ten I think it has been perfectly 

 healthy, but quite normal. Whether it still exists in other 



