39 
he was more fortunate. His glass-houses were full of plants 
cna seen elsewhere in cultivation, many of he introduced 
f 
In 1890 his friend Max Leichtlin gave him his collection of 
South African Nerines. Elwes grew these successfully ever 
since, and did more than anyone else to improve them by 
hybridisation. In recent years he took a keen interest in. the 
cultivation of succulent plants, and succeeded remarkably with 
many species of Mesembryanthemum, Haworthia, and other 
desert species. For many years his garden contained a fine 
collection of bulbous plants; in 1874 he discovered six new 
ocuses in Asia Minor, and ever since, with many species of 
Fritillary, Tulip, and Snowdrops, they have flourished at Coles- 
borne. He had always taken a keen interest in Alpine plants, 
and near the end of his life contemplated writing a book on these 
at a time when most of his friends would have preferred him 
to devote all the energies of his declining years to an autobiography. 
Colesborne was a museum of his collections of butterflies, 
big-game trophies from all countries, and his remarkable collec- 
tion of timbers, and what he could tell about them, rendered a 
visit to Colesborne an experience none of his friends will forget. 
In recent years he devoted much time to the bringing together 
at Colesborne and the hybridising of sheep of primitive breeds 
from all parts of these islands, and published an interesting 
paper about them. He sent pens of these sheep to the Royal 
Agricultural Show at Bristol in 1913. The qualities of various. 
wools induced him to take up this subject, and from what they 
learned at Colesborne many have s tarted flocks of their own, 
and go clad, as he did, in cloth of ‘‘ Moorit ” Shetland, or Black 
Welsh of their own raising. 
Elwes succeeded to Colesborne on the death of his father in 
1891. He was the eldest of a family of seven. One of his sisters 
married, as his first wife, Sir Michael Hicks Beech (afterwards — 
Lord St. Aldwyn), and another was the first wife of the late 
Frederick du Cane Godman, F.R.S., who shared all of Elwes’ 
botanical and zoological interests, and was his greatest friend. 
A story Elwes was fond of telling was of when in the seventies 
he and Godman were on a coach on the way to the Yosemite 
Valley in California. They were sitting on a back seat and named 
to each other every butterfly and tree they passed. The driver 
was becoming more irate every minute at hearing two “ ame 
foot ’’ Britishers identify things of which he knew nothing, 
it was the occasional local name. On coming to a tree a 
Fremontia californica, covered with its yellow blossoms, the 
lady at his side asked what it was. “I call it Slippery Elm,” 
was his reply, “ but I don’t know what the pair of bug- -fiends 
back of me will say it is!” 
Elwes was at his best in his own home. An-admirable host, 
he imparted information to his guest on all scientific subjects, 
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