246 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



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 

 crocuses in Asia Minor, and since then these, with many species 

 of fritillary, tulip, and snowdrop, have flourished at Colesborne. 

 He had always taken a keen interest in Alpine plants, and 

 near the end of his life contemplated writing a book on them 

 at a time when most of his friends would have preferred him 

 to devote all the energies of his declining years to an auto- 

 biography. 



Elwes was at his best in his own home. An admirable host, 

 he imparted information to his guests on all scientific subjects, 

 with such kindly insistence that even the most indifferent could 

 not fail to catch his enthusiasm. Like most amateur gardeners, 

 he was generous with his plants. 



Colesborne was a museum of his collections of butterflies, 

 big-game trophies from all countries, and his remarkable 

 collection 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 

 started 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 Beach (after- 

 wards 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 



