HYBRIDISATION, SEEDS, & SEEDLINGS 17 



Nature is cruel, and only looks to the survival of the fittest and 

 the perpetuation of the type, while it is the duty of a raiser to 

 secure the survival of the unlike, the unique, the beautiful, with 

 very little regard to natural fitness, because, under cultivation, the 

 plants so selected will not have to compete with others in the race 

 of life. Remembering that most Orchids have a season of rest, and 

 such season is usually a dry one, raisers followed Nature in this 

 respect when dealing with seedlings as well as with matured plants. 

 The result of this treatment, so far as the seedlings were concerned, 

 was to retard progress materially, and, incidentally, to so weaken 

 them that the time of flowering was long delayed and the diffi- 

 culties of cultivation were greatly increased. Modern raisers 

 realise the fact that seedling Orchids must be "grown on" steadily 

 from germination to flowering, just as the seedlings of other 

 flowering plants are or ought to be. Between these periods a 

 check of any kind is most undesirable. Fortunately, if the con- 

 ditions already advised, and as practised by the most successful 

 raisers, are provided it is possible to flower Orchids as quickly after 

 germination as it is to flower seedlings of most kinds of bulbous 

 plants. But this fact has only become generally known during 

 the last few years, and the wider knowledge has given a wonderful 

 impetus to Orchid culture by showing that, speaking broadly, 

 plants raised and brought up in the artificial conditions of our 

 glass houses are far more easily cultivated than imported plants. 

 The exceptions to this general rule are to be found in hybrids 

 derived from parents of widely difi^ering habit, or those from 

 parents that are naturally weak growers. 



After the initial stages of growth have passed seedling Orchids 

 must be potted as necessary, and, as they increase in size, the 

 compost may, with advantage, be of a coarser nature than that 

 used previously. 



