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existing in Mr. E. J. Lowe's possession, and which the 

 owner considered was perfectly sterile but kindly per- 

 mitted the writer to take the few capsules which he 

 discovered on investigation. Naturally the opportunity 

 thus presented for propagating so fine a form as " pul- 

 cherrimum " on a more liberal scale than the offsets 

 permitted, was not lost, and both Mr. Green and the 

 writer made sowings, but naturally without any anticipa- 

 tion whatever of the surprise in store. In due course, 

 numerous young plants appeared, but for some reason mine 

 were first in a condition for planting out in the open, where 

 it was soon perceived that a number of them diflfered 

 markedly from the rest in the greater slenderness and 

 length of their sub-divisions. These differences also 

 evidenced themselves later in those obtained by Mr. Green, 

 and it soon became clear that roughly thirty per cent, of 

 the about loo plants resulting were of an entirely new 

 character and worthy of all the attention that could be 

 devoted to them. As they grew on, it was recognised that 

 the majority of the plants were quite of the parental i.e. 

 the " pulcherrimum " type, a few were reversions towards the 

 normal, but singularly enough rather of the " angulare " 

 character than the " aculeatum," which suggests, together 

 with the comparative sterility, that hybridization may have 

 been a factor in the original mutation. The rest were 

 the " prizes " we have in view. As the plants grew it was 

 obvious that they had inherited the parental robustness of 

 constitution, and in due course two fine exhibition 

 specimens were shown by me at the Royal Horticultural 

 Hall, and these, being of sufficiently distinct types, received 

 two first-class certificates, the section being named " gracil- 

 limum " Druery, as indicative of the slender and graceful 

 character. Later Mr. Green, among whose plants a quite 

 distinct and plumose plant of great beauty and fine 

 dissection had appeared, obtained an Award of Merit for 

 that under the name of P. ac. pulch. plumosum Green, though 

 it as richly merited a first-class certificate as the others. 



