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were duly shed in copious showers, ' ' larding the lean earth " 

 in most approved fashion. The foliage was drenched with 

 condensed moisture, and every omen seemed propitious. 

 Our CO. appeared mollified by (if not completely reconciled 

 to) the arrangement, and even condescended to " damn it 

 with faint praise/ ' 



In course of time it was reported that H. pulcherrimum 

 which had latterly been advancing by leaps and bounds, 

 had now a " lean and hungry look/' and that the general 

 appearance of the rest of the ferns impressed one with the 

 conviction that " sin, death and hell had set their mark 

 upon them." Could it be the sewer gas that was exercising 

 such a baneful influence, or did the absence of the natural 

 resting season in this artificially arranged structure account 

 for the rapid and all-round deterioration of the plants ? 



A consultation was immediately called, and a thorough 

 investigation made, when it transpired that both these 

 hypotheses were incorrect. The place had been invaded by 

 a colony of rats which had gnawed off many thousands of 

 fronds in order to construct nests which would be high and 

 dry above the water line. The tenants were evicted in 

 summary fashion and wire netting fixed over the aperture 

 to the airshaft. 



There could be nothing better calculated to unchain all 

 the latent ferocity in one's nature than to witness such a 

 scene of devastation as then presented itself. Forests of 

 fronds from all the choicest filmies on earth remorselessly 

 butchered, not " to make a Roman holiday " but to con- 

 struct shelter for the above-mentioned vermin. 



"It's worse than the sack of Lou vain," groaned our 

 scientist. 



" Had I but died an hour before this chanced, I'd lived 

 a blessed time," sobbed our timekeeper. 





