Xxii. HISTORY OF ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. 



different ways, and it may be added that when hybrids between Brasso- 

 cattleya and Brassolselia appear, also between Brassolseha and Lseho- 

 cattleya, they will also have to be included under Brassocatlselia, which will 

 exhaust the possible ways of obtaining this artificial or hybrid genus. 



In one of these fourteen trigeneric hybrids, namely Brassocatlaelia X 

 Lawrencei, both the parents were themselves hybrids, and an analysis 

 shows that it has four species in its composition, Brassavola tuberculata, 

 Cattleya intermedia, C. Leopold!, and Lselia purpurata. 



Specific Composition of Hybrids. 



An analysis of the specific composition of the hybrids enumerated would 

 give some curious results. Hybrids may be divided into primary and 

 secondary, and the latter include hybrids of various degrees of complexity. 

 There are hybrids derived from two species, from three, from four, and in 

 one case even from five, and a brief consideration of these several classes 

 will be interesting. 



Primary Hybrids are the result of crossing distinct species, sometimes 

 belonging to different genera, and necessarily represent the first stage in the 

 process. Primary hybrids almost invariably show a blend of the parental 

 characters, and can usually be fairly described as intermediate, though in a 

 few cases one parent is apparently prepotent over the other, and thus may 

 be described as dominant. The seedlings, even out of the same capsule, 

 often vary slightly between themselves, and the variation is increased when 

 different varieties of the same species are used, but the differences are 

 seldom great, and no difficulty is experienced in assigning all as forms of 

 the same hybrid. Reversing the cross seldom makes any difference, for in 

 many cases where the reverse cross has been made the result is practically 

 identical. 



Prepotency, already mentioned, sometimes exhibits itself in a very 

 peculiar way. Either parent may exert this prepotent character. In the 

 case of Cattleya X lamberhurstensis it is the seed parent, C. intermedia, 

 which is dominant, but in Epiphronitis X Veitchii it is the pollen parent, 

 Epidendrum radicans, and the character is so marked, both in habit and 

 floral structure, that without actual evidence no one would suspect that it 

 was a seedling from Sophronitis grandiflora. Epicattleya X matutina, 

 Epilaelia X Charlesworthii and a few others exhibit the sarne kind of pre- 

 potency. All are suspected to be cases of partial reversion, the hybrids 

 resembling the more ancestral of the two parents. The idea is borne out by 

 the disappearance of other characters which may be considered as of 

 comparatively recent development. For example, the peculiar beak- 

 like staminode of Paphiopedilum Rothschildianum is invariably lost in its 

 hybrids, the organ reverting to the more typical shield-shaped form. 



