HISTORY OF ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. 



False Hybrids.— There is another kind of prepotency — if the term is 

 indeed applicable — in which the seedlings resemble the seed parent entirely, 

 the influence of the pollen parent being apparently lost. Zygopetalum 

 Mackayi furnishes one of the best known examples, for it has been crossed 

 with more than one species of Odontoglossum, also with such diverse plants 

 as Lycaste Skinneri, Oncidium tigrinum, and Laelia anceps, and yet the 

 seedlings in each case resembled the seed parent entirely. It is not a case 

 of self-fertilisation, for in each case the pollen of the Zygopetalum was 

 carefully removed (and unless the foreign pollen is applied to the stigma 

 no capsule is produced). It is suspected to be a case of parthenogenesis, 

 the stimulus of pollination sufficing to cause the ovules to develop into buds. 

 These and other similar cases are worthy of further investigation from a 

 biological standpoint, but they are outside the scope of the present work. 

 The very term " false " hybrids implies a doubt whether they are hybrids at 

 all in a true sense. 



Secondary Hybrids form a very numerous class. They have arisen 

 from the intercrossing of primary hybrids, either with their own parent 

 species, with different species, or with each other. Their existence 

 necessarily involves the question of the fertility of hybrids, which we have 

 not touched upon, but which for the present may, in the majority of cases, 

 be taken for granted. The one striking difference between secondary and 

 primary hybrids is the much greater variability of the former. It may not 

 be equally apparent in all cases, especially where the original parents are 

 very closely allied, but it is so common as to have attracted . universal 

 attention, and various attempts have been made to explain it. The facts 

 are beyond dispute, and the controversial side of the question may be 

 omitted. 



This great variability was noticed when the very first batch of secondary 

 hybrids flowered, as already mentioned (p. x.), and it may be interesting to 

 record an observation made at the time. Five of the seedlings of Lselio- 

 cattleya X fausta (then called Cattleya X fausta) were painted by Mr. John 

 Day, who remarked as follows (Orch. Draw. xxx. t. 31) : " Mr. Seden tells me 

 that they raised seven plants of it only (or that only seven have flowered), 

 and they were all different. This he attributes to the fact that the pollen 

 parent, Cattleya exoniensis, is itself a hybrid between C. Mossiae and Laelia 

 crispa, and some of the offspring have run back to their grandparents, and 

 some have taken more to their mamma, C. Loddigesii." The remark is 

 interesting on another account, for it shows that Mr. Seden had then 

 correctly diagnosed the much-disputed parentage of the pollen parent. 



Secondary Hybrids derived from Two Species are necessarily 

 primary hybrids intercrossed with one of their own parents, and these now 

 form a very numerous class. Phragmopedilum x Sedenii re-crossed with 



