CamBRIDGE, N 
Pook. | 
BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
ASSACHUSETTS, APRIL 6, 1966 VoL. 21, No. 6 
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 
HYBRID GENERIC NAMES OF ORCHIDS 
1887-1965 
BY 
LesntiE A. Garay AND HERMAN R. SWEET 
Tuis compendium of orchid hybrid generic names 
from 1887 through 1965 is prepared to further the stabili- 
zation of orchid hybrid generic names through correct 
nomenclature. 
It may safely be said that no other plant family pos- 
sesses such a large number of hybrids, both natural and 
artificial, as the Orchidaceae. Since the time that Dominy 
flowered his first artificial cross — Calanthe Dominyi — 
in 1856, the number of man-made hybrids now well ex- 
ceeds that of the described species. Shortly after this 
date, it was recognized that in the orchid family crosses 
between species of different genera often resulted in fer- 
tile offspring, a phenomenon that necessitated a change 
in nomenclatorial procedures. 
In 1887, Rolfe, in the Journal of the Linnean Society, 
proposed that the precedent established by Masters in 
1872 (The Gardeners’ Chronicle, p. 358, 1872) should 
be followed. Accordingly, hybrid generic names are 
compounded from those of parent genera. In following 
this principle, Rolfe established the first seven bigeneric 
hybrid names: Phaiocalanthe (Phaius X Calanthe), 
Laeliocattleya (Laelia * Cattleya), Sophrocattleya 
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