228 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
to be rid of a form of plant no longer approved, 
starves and neglects them. 
The same argument enables us to understand 
why Cypripeds lend themselves so readily to the 
hybridizer. Darwin taught us to expect that 
species which can rarely hope to secure a chance 
of reproduction will learn to make the process 
as easy and as sure as the conditions would admit 
—that none of those scarce opportunities may be 
lost. And so it proves. Orchidaceans are apt to 
declare that “ everybody ” is hybridizing Cypripeds 
nowadays. At least, so many persons have taken 
up this agreeable and interesting pursuit that 
science has lost count of the less striking results. 
Briefly, the first hybrid Cypripedium was raised by 
Dominy, in 1869, and named after Mr. Harris, who, 
as has been said, suggested the operation to him. 
Seden produced the next in 1874—Cyp. Sedenz from 
Cyp. Schlimit x Cyp. longiflorum ; curious as the 
single instance yet noted in which seedlings turn 
out identical, whichever parent furnish the pollen- 
masses. In every other case they vary when the 
functions of the parents are exchanged, 
For a long time after 1853, when serious work 
begun, Messrs. Veitch had a monopoly of the 
business. It is but forty years, therefore, since 
experiments commenced, in which time hundreds 
