REVIEW AND INFERENCES. 29 



that we might be moved by other reasons when crossing 

 our orchids. We learned that the health of our cross, 

 the vigor of its system was more fit to endure the treat- 

 ment we offered it than the sickly species used in their 

 parentage exceptions as there may occur. I admit 

 that we have made wonderful progress in the culture of 

 our orchids, collected from so entirely different sur- 

 roundings, and brought into the narrow frames which 

 we make their new home. But need I recall the fact 

 that we are far from managing a Cattleya citrina? 

 that the whole section of the Cyrtochila Oncidia are 

 this very day as much of strangers to us as they were a 

 dozen years ago? Let that suffice to intimate that we 

 ought to pick out every poor grower amongst our pets, 

 and cross-fertilize him. Another point at which we aim 

 in cross-fertilization is the improvement in co.lor and 

 shape of flower. Do not be deceived by the great efforts 

 made by those firms which have brought to us the origi- 

 nal plants from the tropics. Their glory may be daz- 

 zling and seem worth the trouble and the dangers 

 endured by those poor collectors who went out in 

 search of our treasures. But those regions have a limit, 

 and while the last group of islands in the Australias is 

 about to be ransacked by the greed of the importers: 

 the steady gain of the home cultivator has invaded their 

 ranks, and the time will come when we appreciate higher 

 the products of home-industry. 



I mention that the aggregate number of distinct 

 crosses raised up to date is nearing two thousand. I 

 need not state that all the work done so far has been 

 to a very great extent of a speculative kind. Think 

 that so paltry a cross as Cypripedium Harrisonianum 

 could receive almost twenty different names, cenanthum 

 twenty-five! Every one of their raisers thought his 



