LIVES OF HYBRIDISTS 



JOHN DOMINY. 



JOHN DOMINY was born at Gittisham, Devon, in 1816, and 

 early in life adopted gardening as a profession. In 1834, after 

 completing his term of apprenticeship in a private garden, he 

 entered the nursery of Messrs. Lucombe, Pince & Co., of 

 Exeter, where he stayed for two or three months ; he then 

 joined Messrs. Veitch, who at that time possessed only the 

 Exeter establishment. 



Here Dominy remained until 1841, in which year he 

 accepted an appointment as head gardener to J. P. Magor, 

 Esq., of Redruth, with whom he stayed nearly five years, after 

 which he again entered the nursery at Exeter, and continued 

 with the firm, both at Exeter and Chelsea, till 1880, when 

 failing strength compelled retirement. 



Dominy was an excellent cultivator of Stove and Green- 

 house Plants, but it was his skill as a hybridizer of Orchids 

 and Nepenthes that won for him the high position his name 

 holds in the list of practical horticulturists of the last century. 



Mr. John Harris, a surgeon of Exeter, who possessed 

 an acquaintance with Botany, first suggested to Dominy 

 the possibility of obtaining hybrid orchids, and explained to 

 him the structure of the orchid flower and the process 

 of pollination. As soon as an opportunity presented itself 

 Dominy lost no time in turning the suggestion to practical 

 account, and Calanthe X Dominii,* which flowered in 1856, 

 was the first of his successes. This resulted from crossing 



* Bot. Mag. t. 5042. 

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