ORCHIDS AND HYBRIDIZING. 247 
anderiz, with which Mr. Cookson won a first-class 
certificate of the Royal Horticultural Society. 
It flowered within three years of fertilizing. Asa 
genus, perhaps, Dendrobiums are readiest to 
show. Plants have actually been “ pricked out” 
within two months of sowing, and they have 
bloomed within the fourth year. Phajus and 
Calanthe rank next for rapid development. 
Masdevallia, Chysis, and Cypripedium require 
four to five years, Lycaste seven to eight, Leelia 
and Cattleya ten to twelve. These are Mr. 
Veitch’s calculations in a rough way, but there 
are endless exceptions, of course. Thus his 
Lelia triophthalma flowered in its eighth season, 
whilst his Lelia caloglossa delayed till its 
nineteenth. The genus Zygopetalum, which plays 
odd tricks in hybridizing, as I have mentioned, is 
curious in this matter also. Z. maxzllare crossed 
with Z. Mackayz demands five years to bloom, but 
vice versd nine years. There is a case somewhat 
similar, however, among the Cypripeds. C. Schlimiz 
crossed with C. /ongifolium flowers in four years, 
but vice versd in six. It is not to be disputed, 
therefore, that the hybridizer’s reward is rather 
slow in coming ; the more earnestly should he take 
measures to ensure, so far as is possible, that it be 
worth waiting for, 
