70 ORCHID HYBRIDS. 



are not very far separated as species, and that with 

 bellatulum and Regnieri we have nearly the full set of 

 what we term the niveum-group. Look around in your 

 own or your neighbor's relationship, and do not be sur- 

 prised at the analogy you will discover. Does your boy 

 raise pigeons? or your wife chickens? Why is it that 

 your boy possesses pigeons which display color and spots 

 never traceable to the parents in question? Why is it 

 your little flock of pullets has quite a number that carry 

 double combs, whereas you know for a fact that rooster 

 and hen both have a single lop-comb? Keep your eyes 

 open, and the records of your hybridizing strict and 

 truthful, and you will lend a strong and generous helping 

 hand to the botanist who -tries to father you. Let us 

 speak fully about the remarkable Cpd. medea moiistrosa 

 raised as (Spicerianum $ X hirsutissimum) by Mr. W. 

 B. Latham, the curator of the Birmingham Botanic 

 Garden, at Edgbaston. He had sent it to Mr. R. A. 

 Rolfe, who named it provisionally as above and added: 

 " Veitch's hybrid is normal in character, yours may or 

 may not become so hereafter. Others from the same 

 cross may come all right if you have them. The lip is 

 not really absent, but abnormal in shape, more like a 

 sepal. Its greatest curiosity to my mind is that the two 

 stamens are changed into perfect staminodes. I should 

 keep it, if only as a curiosity, it is a very instructive plant. 

 If proof were wanted that the staminode is only a mod- 

 ified stamen, surely here it is." Let me, as a far-off 

 observer, add that the plant should be grown on, divided 

 and distributed to centers of learning where botanical 

 objects of scientific value are supposed to be taken care 

 of. But one plant was raised, and though it would have 

 been interesting to have a dozen more seedlings from 

 the same capsule, it is just as likely that not one other 



