THE HISTORY OF ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. 



" On the 28th of October, 1856," writes Dr. Lindley {Card. Chron., 1858, 

 p. 4), " Mr. James Veitch, jun., of the Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, brought 

 to the writer of this memorandum a flower of a Calanthe which combined 

 the peculiar hairy forked spur and deeply lobed lip of the white Calanthe 

 furcata, with the violet colour and broad middle lobe of the lip of C. 

 Masuca. One might have said that the flowers were just intermediate 

 between the two. ... It appears that it had been raised in the Exotic 

 Nursery, by Mr. Dominy, Messrs. Veitch's indefatigable and very intelligent 

 foreman, between C. Masuca and C. furcata. The seed was obtained in 

 1854 by crossing these two species, was immediately sown, and in two 

 years the seedlings were in flower. Nor is it the least remarkable 

 circumstance connected with this production that it grows and flowers 

 freely, while C. Masuca is a ' shy ' plant. We therefore propose, with 

 much pleasure, that the name of the hybrid be Calanthe Dominii, in order to 

 put upon record the name of the first man who succeeded in this operation. 

 He is indeed specially entitled to this distinction, not only in consequence 

 of having produced other Orchidaceous mules, among which we under- 

 stand are Cattleyas, but because of his eminent success in raising such 

 plants from seed, as a matter of horticultural business." This was over a 

 year after the event, but it is upon record that when Mr. Veitch first 

 showed him the plant the Doctor exclaimed, " Why, you will drive the 

 botanists mad ! " This historic plant is figured as the frontispiece to the 

 present work. 



It was Mr. John Harris, a surgeon, of Exeter, who suggested to Dominy 

 the possibility of muling Orchids, and who pointed out to him the 

 reproductive organs seated in the column, and showed that the application 

 of the pollinia to the stigmatic surface was analagous to the dusting of the 

 stigma of other flowers with pollen. 



The Rev. W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, had previously suggested 

 the possibility of raising hybrid Orchids. In a paper entitled " On 

 Hybridisation among Vegetables," published in 1847 {Journ. Hort. Soc, ii. 

 p. 104), he remarked, " Cross breeding among Orchidaceous plants would 

 perhaps lead to very startling results ; but, unfortunately, they are not 

 easily raised by seed. I have, however, raised Bletia, Cattleya, Orchis 

 (Herminium) Monorchis and Ophrys aranifera from seed ; and if I were 

 not during the greater part of the year absent from the place where my 

 plants are deposited, I think I could succeed in obtaining crosses in that 

 order. I had well-formed pods last spring of Orchis by pollen of Ophrys 



