HORTUS VEITCHI1 



Calanthe Masuca with the pollen of C. furcata, and the seedling 

 took two years to flower. 



Considered a great cultural feat by the gardeners of the 

 day, botanists were less enthusiastic in welcoming the new 

 plant, and the exclamation of Dr. Lindley, the leading 

 botanist and systematist of his time " You will drive the 

 botanists mad," is well known, and expressed the feelings of 

 many scientists regarding hybrids, or, as they were then 

 called, " mules." 



Calanthe X Dominii was soon followed by others, an account 

 of which will be found in other portions of this work, but 

 mention may here be made of some of the more important 

 hybrid orchids, which, in spite of the great advance made in 

 Orchid culture since Dominy's day, still hold a favourable 

 position in collections. 



Laeliocattleya exoniensis, Dominy's principal success from 

 a cultivator's point of view ; Calanthe X Veitchii, long since 

 recognized as one of the handsomest and most useful of winter- 

 flowering hybrids, and a potent agent in the production of 

 many new and beautiful forms of recent times ; Phaiocalanthe 

 irrorata, a bigeneric hybrid, the first to be raised ; and Cypri- 

 pedium X vexillarium, the forerunner of a group of handsome 

 Cypripedes in which the beautiful Cypripedium Fairieanum 

 has participated in the parentage, are all due to Dominy. 



It was not, however, to orchids alone that Dominy devoted 

 his attention ; Nepenthes and Fuchsias gained much from his 

 efforts, and some very successful results were obtained in these 

 two genera, notably Nepenthes X Dominii, N. X hybrida and 

 Fuchsia X Dominiana. 



To the high estimation in which John Dominy was held 

 in horticultural circles the following testifies : On leaving 

 Devon in 1864 to accompany the late James Veitch to Chelsea, 



100 



