104 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
this complex hybrid, we find that it is a pure Lelio-Cattleya, having 
eight pollinia in two rows of four each, the upper row being small and 
apparently rudimentary; and although the Lelia parentage is only 
represented to the extent of 3, yet the generic characters are the same as 
if it had been}. In other words, through its parent and grandparent 
the hybrid has inherited the generic characters of one of its great-grand- 
parents, while the specific characters of that ancestor can be traced but 
little, and the varietal characters not at all. 
Generic hybrids in the Orchidexw have produced many anomalies; for 
instance, when the species of Lelia, Cattleya, and Sophronitis are 
intercrossed, normal hybrids are produced, intermediate in their generic 
characters; but when species of Lelia, Cattleya, and Sophronitis are 
crossed with the reed-like species of Epidendrum, the latter genus is 
always prepotent to a remarkable extent, completely swamping the other 
genera, no matter how they may have been crossed; yet, in every case, 
in specific and varietal characters, one can easily trace the influence of 
the other parents, thus proving that the cross has been really and truly 
made. 
Seven positive cases, and no negative ones, of these prepotent Epi- 
dendrum crosses are on record, and all agree in this curious generic 
prepotency. 
(1) Epiphronitis x Veitchii, raised by Messrs. Veitch out of Sophronitis 
grandiflora (Lindl.) by Epidendrum radicans (Pay.). 
(2) Epi-Cattleya x matutina, raised by Messrs. Veitch out of Cattleya 
Bowringiana (Veitch), by Epidendrum radicans. 
(8) Epi-Leelia x radico-purpurata, raised both by Messrs. Veitch and 
Messrs. Charlesworth out of Lelia purpurata (Lindl.), by Epidendrum 
radicans. (Figs. 24 and 25.) 
(4) Epi-Lelia x Charlesworthii, raised by Messrs. Charlesworth out of 
Lelia cinnabarina (Lindl.), by Epidendrum radicans. 
(5) Epi-Cattleya x‘ Mrs. James O’Brien,’ raised by Messrs. Veitch out 
of Cattleya Bowringiana, by Epidendrum x O’Brienianum (Veitch), the 
latter parent being itself a hybrid out of EH. evectum (Hook. f.), by 
K. radicans. 
(6) Epi-Lelia x heatonensis (Charlesworth), out of Lelia cinnabarina, 
by Epidendrum x O’Brienianum. 
It is difficult to account for this anomaly, but I have suggested in 
another place that possibly the aristocratic Cattleya and Lelia, as well as 
the more modest Sophronitis, are all descended—or should it not be 
ascended ?—from a lowly reed-like Epidendrum ancestor, and, when 
crossed with their poor relations, tend to revert to their common ancestor. 
In addition to these Epidendrum hybrids there are eleven curious crosses 
between very distinct genera, which, strangely enough, have all reproduced 
the characters of their seed-parents almost exactly. 
(1) Zygopetalum Mackayi ¢ crossed with Odontoglossum nobile 
(Pescatorei) ¢, both by Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, and by Messrs. Heath, 
of Cheltenham, produced over 300 plants, of which more than twenty 
flowered Z. Mackayi pure and simple (the remainder were thrown away 
unflowered, but all were evidently the same species). 
(2) Zygopetalum Mackayi 2 crossed with Odontoglossum crispum ¢. 
