212 ABOUT ORCAIDS. 
even genera—recognized at this date may be 
thinned inasurprising fashion. I believe—timidly, 
as becomes the unscientific—that many distinc- 
tions which anatomy recognizes at present as 
essential to a true species will be proved, in the 
future, to result from promiscuous hybridization 
through zons of time. ‘‘ Proved,” perhaps, is the 
word too strong, since human life is short ; but 
such a mass of evidence will be collected that 
reasonable men can entertain nodoubt. Of course 
the species will be retained, but we shall know it 
to be a hybrid—the offspring, perhaps, of hybrids 
innumerable. 
I incline more and more to think that even 
genera may be disturbed in a surprising fashion, 
and I know that some great authorities agree with 
me outright, though they are unprepared to 
commit themselves at present. A very few years 
ago this suggestion would have been absurd, in 
the sense that it wanted facts in support. As our 
ancestors made it an article of faith that to fer- 
tilize an orchid was impossible for man, so we 
imagined until lately that genera would not 
mingle. But this belief grows unsteady. Though 
bi-generic crosses have not been much favoured, as 
offering little prospect of success, such results have 
been obtained already that the field of speculation 
