May 21, 1910 



HORTl CULTURE 



767 



Orchid Hybridization 



There are few phases of horticulture that have pro- 

 gressed so rapidly and produced such wonderful results 

 as the work of the cultivator and careful hybridizer of 

 orchids. The man who went into the wilds and brought 

 out hidden treasures used to be the hero of the day : 

 scarcely an issue of the horticultural press but told oi 

 the flowering of some new species or rare variety, anl 

 the yearly totals of plants new to science required 

 columns for their enumeration. This is not so now. 

 Collectors rarely find a new plant, their efforts being 

 wholly devoted to sending home in quantity those kinds 

 most in demand, and they tell frequently of the greater 

 difficulties experienced each time in securing and trans- 

 porting their plunder. 



Here is where the home-raised plants fit in, for if 

 we know there could be no more orchids secured from 

 their native haunts, cultivators would start on another 

 tack, and raise seedlings from the very best varieties 

 in their possession, with the reasonable assurance of 

 some being equally as good as the parent, some better, 

 the gi'eater portion without doubt being of less value 

 for the tendency of all nature is to retrogress. 



When speaking of hybridization, very much of the 

 time cross-fertilization is meant. A plant the result 

 of two varieties of Cattleya is a cross, and when we try 

 to define the species in this genus it is no easy task, for 

 the authorities are not of one opinion and may never 

 be, so the term hybrid has become a generic one, often 

 made to do duty for seedlings in general, and until 

 the question "What is a species?" is better answered 

 than it has been, the gardener may be excused his 

 idiom. 



HELPING SCIENCE 



When seedlings were first flowered'in cultivation, the 

 old-time botanists did not enjoy them; possibly they 

 foresaw the endless tangle in nomenclature that was to 

 ensue! It is even asserted that some of the offsprings 

 were called impolite names by those who were to be 

 their sponsors, but in the meantime they went merrily 

 on creating species, and not perhaps until the time of 

 the younger IJeichenbach did the suspicion creep in 

 that some of these "species" were natural hybrids. The 

 present day cul^■vator is proving again and again each 

 year that the old names have to be changed by the ad- 

 dition of an >• as a prefix to denote the proper origin, 

 even though it happened on the Andes. This is es- 

 pecially tiaie of the Odontoglossums, as they are often 

 found growing together, while the Cattleya districts 

 rarely overlap. The conundrums of a generation ago 

 are plain today to a novice, when he is shown. 



THE CULTIVATOR 



And this is where the cultivator comes in and is 

 told that orchids must perforce be assisted in some way 

 before seeds can be produced, and Darwin did it so well 

 that the small boy. in the greenhouse was eager- to try 

 his 'prentice hand', and he is doing it today. How won- 

 derful the mechanism of a Cattleya flower, with radiat- 

 ing lines on the lip all converging at the point of con- 

 tact! Doubtless these lines are visible to the bee in 

 the forest. In some instances they are raised up to form 

 a rough road for travel, so that in fighting his passage 

 fertilization is assured. An instance of this is seen in 

 Laelia Dayana and in the Coelogynes. In the beginning 

 all sorts of attempts are made, including the impos- 



CaTI-LEYA X THAYEKIANA (C. INTE-MEDIA X C. 

 SCHROEDERAE ALBA.) 



sible, these last being useful to teach how far one may 

 go and succeed. It used to be considered impossible to 

 cross two genera ; this may even be true, but if it is 

 the botanists will have to rearrange the whole family, 

 for many beautiful bi-generic hybrids are in existence 

 and — what is more important- — they are not sterile, and 

 are being used as parents themselves, as in some of 

 the Sophronitis crosses, with success. 



LIMITATIONS 



As already noted, there is a limit to the possibilities, 

 but it is not the intention of the writer now to name 

 them, not even those proven, because more radical 

 matings are being made by others ; but there is another 

 phase "of the subject that calls for comment, namely, 

 indiscriminate use of the material available. Seed- 

 lings today are cheaper than imported wild plants; 

 thousands are thrown away even by one individual 

 raiser, or were until he raised plants from the very best 

 types possible, and only this is worth while today. The 

 complaint has often reached the writer that home-raised 

 plants do not equal introduced ones, and it is true that 

 there are gems among the latter we shall never see 

 excelled, such as a Cypripedium Sanderae, a Cattleya 

 Reineckiana, or a snow white C. gigas — perhaps the 

 rarest, certainly the newest, acquisition. We know, 

 however, that these can now be perpetuated and even 

 improved upon bv other and more rapid means than 

 the old lifetime method of division, and if the two last 

 named Cattleyas were mated (they are now in bloom 

 together) one could with certainty count on many being 

 good, and, what is of more interest perhaps, the home- 

 raised ]ilanfs would l>e in bloom at various seasons. 



VARIABILITY 



The introduced types are fixed in their character of 

 blooming at stated periods. Individuals may, and have 

 Ijeen noted to vary less than a week from year to year 

 in time of opening. In direct contrast to this is the 

 fact that if we take Laelia purpurata and cross with C. 

 Gaskelliana — two summer blooming kinds — the result- 

 ing plants will be in bloom every week in the year, and 

 this is only one illustration. Herein it would seem lies 

 the greatest triumph of the operator, inasniuch as the 

 cross" or hvbrid is also a magnificent Orchid ; no two 



