8 INTRODUCTION. 



naturally produced hybrid Willows (Salix] as being equally 

 numerous ; and he also cites the Narbonne Cisti above alluded 

 to, and many hybrids between an Aceras and Orchis (See Dr 

 Weddell's observations in Annales de Sc. Nat., 3d series (Bot), 

 vol. xviii. p. 6). Verbascum is given as another example, and 

 numerous interesting details may be seen in the Linnaean 

 Society's Journal cited above. Among Phalsenopsids and 

 Odontoglots we have several plants so strikingly intermediate 

 between apparently distinct species, that we are quite as fully 

 justified in assuming that they are natural hybrids as we should 

 be in naming and describing them as new species. 



Orchis purpureo-militaris, O. morio-papilionacea are wild 

 Continental hybrids, and one has been produced between O. 

 galeata and Aceras antropophora. M. Timball-Lagrave has 

 described other new hybrid forms of Orchis, and a, remarkable 

 intermediate or mule between a species of Serapias and Orchis 

 laxiflora. M. Koch, in the second edition of his " Synopsis," 

 alludes to and describes 36 hybrids in the genus Circium alone ; 

 to say nothing of the hybrid Primulas, Narcissus, Roses, 

 Brambles, Violets, Hieraciums, and those of other genera 

 which are known to exist, and to many of which we shall 

 hereafter allude. 



