28 REPORT ON THE 



morning, to the great dismay of Seden, it was discovered that 

 a slug had eaten off two of the best leaves, and would, if not 

 trapped, certainly devour the remainder. Anxious to save the 

 treasure, the plant was watched incessantly for hours in the 

 expectation that sooner or later the marauder would make his 

 appearance ; to induce him to do so the moss was constantly 

 plunged into water ; the repeated duckings had at length the 

 desired effect, the culprit issued from his lurking place and the 

 plant was saved. The two little circumstances I have narrated 

 speak for themselves. 



And now, how long must the hybridist wait before his labours 

 are rewarded with a sight of the flower whose appearance he has 

 been awaiting with longing expectation, and upon which many 

 hopes have been built, too often, unfortunately, to end in disap- 

 pointment. 



The shortest periods from the germination of the seed to the 

 production of the flower yet observed are those of dendrobinm, 

 that is, D. aureum crossed with D. nobile and vice versa, three to 

 four years ; phaius and calanthe about the same ; masdevallias four 

 to five years ; chysis about the same. Then come longer intervals ; 

 zygopetalum five to nine years, according to the cross, thus, 

 Z. maxillare crossed with Z. Mackayi, five years, vice versa nine 

 years, a curious, but to us, unaccountable circumstance, as is the 

 case of Cypripedium Schlimii, which crossed with C. longifolium 

 flowers in four years ; but the vice versa cross takes six years. 

 Lycaste takes seven to eight years ; laelias and cattleyas may be 

 said to flower from ten to twelve years from the seeds. 



[Seedlings of different genera at various stages of growth were 

 here shown. See Plates, pp. 37 45. J 



I will now glance at some of the results obtained by us from 

 muling. Dominy began to hybridise Orchids at our Exeter 

 nursery in 1853, and continued his operations for some time after 

 removal to Chelsea in 1864. Seden began at Chelsea in 1866, 

 and has worked uninterruptedly from that time to the present. 

 Our experience, therefore, extends over a period of more than 

 thirty years, during which the field of operations has been greatly 

 enlarged, especially of late years, our experiments being made 

 upon a vast number of cultivated Orchids, including many 

 hundreds of crosses, not only between allied species but also 

 between species of different genera. 



Among the results obtained by Dominy at Exeter, Calanthe 



