HYBEIDISATTON. 89 



HYBRIDISATION. 



The removal of the pollinia from one flower and the placing of 

 them on the stig-ma of another is so simple a process that it is 

 somewhat surprising so many years should have elapsed after the 

 flowering of the first hybrid raised by hand* before the practice 

 was generally taken up by the cultivators of orchids. But in fact, 

 apart from the difficulty that always has been and perhaps to a 

 great extent always will be experienced in raising seedlings, the 

 prominent place attained by hybridisation in orchid culture was 

 not anticipated for a long series of years, and so long as artificially 

 raised orchids were restricted in numbers their scientific import was 

 far from being fully recognised by the best orchid authorities. 

 But now that the field of operations has become so greatly enlarged 

 and progenies have been obtained from a great number of pairs of 

 species distributed over many genera, the importance of the results 

 whether viewed from a scientific or horticultural standpoint is more 

 fully realised. These results in their horticultural bearing will be 

 summarised in a subsequent section, our attention is here confined 

 to a consideration of them in their scientific aspect. 



One of the most interesting circumstances connected with artificial 

 hybridisation is the means it has afforded of tracing the life 

 history of many epiphytal orchids. The accompanying figures 

 illustrate different states of development of four species selected 

 from four different genera. They may be accepted as representative 

 types of those four genera ; for although among the numerous 

 crosses effected between different species of the same genus, 

 deviations in the shape and size of the different organs have been 

 observed, in no case have the deviations been so great as to affect 

 the general statement, especially in the earlier stages of growth. 



The time that elapses from the sowing of the seed to the appearance 

 of the first scale-like leaf or cotyledon and the first rootlet varies 

 considerably in the different genera and also according to the season of 

 the year ; it is thence highly probable that in a wild state, especiallj' 

 in the case of those tropical orchids that live in a more equable 



* This was Calanthe X Domiaii wliicli flowered in October, 1856. 

 H 



