HYBRIDIZATIDN OF ORCHIDS. 



dividuality. As soon as large enough to handle they 

 shtfuld be pricked off in small pots, but great care must 

 be used, as they are very delicate. 



They will bloom when strong enough, and this depends 

 much upon the way they are grown ; each succeeding 

 growth should be stronger than the last ; if so, we know the 

 plant is in good health and will ultimately bloom. The 

 process is necessarily slow, and will call for exercise of 

 patient care. Those who are interested in Orchid fertili- 

 zation, than which there is nothing more curious in the 

 vegetable kingdom, should read Darwin's work on the fer- 

 tilization of Orchids, published by Murray in 1862, but 

 which has, we believe, been reprinted in this country. 



A short quotation relating to the number of seeds pro- 

 duced by Orchids may not be uninteresting : " The final 

 end of the whole flower, with all its parts, is the produc- 

 tion of seed ; and these are produced by Orchids in vast 

 profusion ; not that this is anything to boast of in the 

 order, for the production of an almost infinite number of 

 eggs or seeds is undoubtedly a sign of lowness of organi- 

 zation. That a plant not an annual should escape de- 

 struction at some period of its life simply by the produc- 

 tion of a vast number of seeds or seedlings shows a pov 

 erty of contrivance or a want of some fitting protection 

 against some danger. I was curious to estimate the num- 

 ber of seeds produced by Orchids ; so I took a ripe cap- 

 sule of Cephalanthera grandiflora, and arranged the seeds 

 as equally as I could in a narrow hillock on a long ruled 

 line j and then counted the seeds in a length accurately 

 measured of one tenth of an inch. They were 80 in 

 number, and this would give for the whole capsule 6,020 

 seeds, and for the four capsules borne by the plant 24,000 

 seeds. 



