ORCHIDS AND HYBRIDIZING. _229 
of hybrids have been added to our list of flowers ; 
but—this is my point—Nature has been busy at 
the same task for unknown ages, and who can 
measure the fruits of her industry? I do not offer 
the remark as an argument; our observations are 
too few as yet. It may well be urged that if 
Nature had been thus active, the “ natural hybrids” 
which can be recognized would be much more 
numerous than they are. I have pointed out that 
many of the largest genera show very few ; many 
none at all. But is it impossible that the explana- 
tion appears to fail only because we cannot yet 
push it far enough? When the hybridizer causes 
by force a fruitful union betwixt two genera, he 
seems to triumph over a botanical law. But 
suppose the genera themselves are artificial, only 
links in a grand chain which Nature has forged 
slowly, patiently, with many a break and many a 
failure, in the course of ages? She would finish 
her work bit by bit, and at every stage the 
new variety may have united with others in 
endless succession. Few natural hybrids can be 
identified among Cattleyas, for instance. But 
suppose Cattleyas are all hybrids, the result of 
promiscuous intercourse among genera during 
cycles of time—suppose, that is, the genus itself 
sprang from parents widely diverse, crossing, 
