r88i.] NOTES. 171 . 



has also been successful in raising two or three very beautiful seedling 

 Dendrobiums, one of which fairly eclipses the now well-known D. 

 Ainsworthii, and even D. splendidissimum. All of these kinds are 

 hybrids between our old friend D. nobile and the violet-scented D. 

 heterocarpum. Already three Orchid-growers have been successful in 

 raising beautiful varieties from these two species intercrossed, and in 

 all cases the progeny are robust growers, and most profuse in their 

 bloom. I said three had thus far been successful, but I believe I 

 must say four; for among my numerous original sketches of Orchids I 

 find one of D. Charltoni made from flowers sent to me many years ago 

 by Lieut.-Colonel Charlton of Farm Hill, Braddon, Isle of Man, who 

 obtained it by crossing the above species. 



Every day shows us some new development in this great art of 

 hybridism — this mysterious blending of diverse characteristics in 

 plants. Here is an art that will remain to us or to posterity, when 

 every square mile of our tiny world shall have been ransacked by 

 plant-collectors, and all new plants, as nature makes them, shall be no 

 more. Hybridism will always be the kaleidoscope through which new 

 and ever-varied plant beauty will then appear. And not beauty only, 

 for by its agency old plants may be rendered fit for new uses, old 

 favourites of to-day will be made new, and so serve the purposes of 

 the unthought-of fashions of a thousand years hence, just as the 

 Grape- Vine sculptured on the rock at Memphis five thousand years 

 ago gives us the exhibition Grapes to-day. 



The hardy flowers are awaking from their winter's sleep. Snow- 

 drops, Plellebores, Crocus, and Scilla siberica bespangle the turf or 

 open border ; and that lovely gem among early blossoms, Chionodoxa 

 Lucillae, opened its bright eyes to the sun to-day (March 8) for the 

 first time in our old garden. A tiny bulb, not so large as a hazel-nut, 

 has given us four fine flowers nearly an inch in diameter, of a bright 

 porcelain blue, shading to white in the centre. It is far brighter than 

 the Siberian Squill, and, when well established, will be a most wel- 

 come little stranger. 



Narcissus are spearing up strongly, as they always do after severe 

 winters, our N. maximus being now from 12 to 15 inches in height. 

 This is by far the most stately and effective of ail the yellow Daffodils, 

 attaining under good culture a height of from 2 to 3 feet, and bearing 

 great golden blossoms 5 or 6 inches across, and of a colour which 

 would make the most gorgeous AUamanda look like a Primrose. 



Hepaticas, blue, red, and white, are lovely ; but lovelier still is the 

 Spring Snowflake, Leucojum vernum, which hangs its great white bells 

 Snowdrop-like on the top of a stalk nearly a foot in height. 



Writer. 



