Release date is 2025-05-18

Alex White, Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net

"Vallisneria madness by Ralph Milne Farley" is a weird-fiction short story written in the early 20th century. It centers on the moonlit mating of the aquatic vallisneria plant and the spell it casts over a human observer, blending botanical lore with seductive illusion and perilous desire. Tom Spencer visits Professor Gordon to witness the vallisneria’s annual blooming, despite a warning not to approach the narcotic mists of the garden pool. As the moon rises, Spencer sees towering, ethereal women and green-clad men enact a fatal courtship: the men strain for a kiss, their bodies wither, and the women, sated, sink back into the slime—save one unmated beauty. Compelled, Spencer reaches her, expecting doom; instead she yields, and a breeze reveals she is Natalie Gordon standing on a bench, not a deadly apparition. The vision dissolves, and the tale resolves in a human embrace rather than a sacrificial kiss. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Indianapolis, IN: Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 1937