Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 127: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION more in the letter, and all of it was centred round the blooms reaching towards the roof of the Crystal Palace. John was delighted with these letters and read them over several times so that he could visualise progress. “Fancy old Rayson falling for this leaf and letting it stroke him.’? He was con- scious of a shiver which stood his hair on end. He arrived home just in time to watch the first buds starting to form. The excitement was vibrating in every corner of the old house. . George met him at the door, looking years younger, and Rayson had found he pos- sessed a tongue with the accumulated thoughts of years to express. John marvelled at the beauty of the blooms. They were slow-growing and possessed a fascination which was emphasised by the gradual revealing colours and shapes which they assumed in their growth. He spent every minute of his time with 126 them, soaking himself in the perfume which surrounded the plants, finding fascination in the curve of the stems and new delights in the caressing of the leaves. He played with the names he hoped would express their proper- ties. Esoteric names capable of implying all the delights which his own senses regis- tered. He failed utterly, and decided to wait until the food flowers had developed to their maximum and then he might find the word. There was, he admitted, something peculiar in the erotic lure the plants stimulated in the human mind. He threw the thought off. The design was right, of that he was certain, and if it failed to attract, then he had failed. It was a good criterion. “Wonderful things,” George would say. “I never knew there was so much beauty in the world. It’s a kind of distillation of wonders. Look at the colour just showing in these buds. Did you ever see such pink? comicloooks.conm