94- GENERAL KEVIEW OF THE ORCIIIDE.E. 



for its second parent Epidendrum radicans, a native of Guatemala, 

 several thousands of miles distant from the home of Sophronltis grandiflora. 

 And lastly, two remarkable progenies have been obtained by crossing 

 Zi/gopetalum Mackayi and Z. ma.rillare each with Gola.r jugosus, which 

 bear the name of Zygocolax. The number of bigeneric hybrids 

 known to us, omitting Dominy's three from genera in the tribe 

 Neottie.e, is nine, in the parentage of which seven genera are 

 concerned counting Cattleya and Lgelia as one. 



Hybrids between Cattleya and Lselia have been raised by several 



operators, and exceed in number those between species of Cattleya 



and those between species of Laelia taken together, a fact so significant 



as to seriously question the retention of Lselia as a distinct genus except 



for certain Mexican species* with a distinct habit of growth, and which 



have hitherto resisted all attempts to hybridise them either with Cattleya 



or with the Brazilian Laelias. 



One undoubted wild generic hybrid has been introduced from 



Guatemala, of which Epidendrum aurantiacnm and Cattleija Skinneri 



are the parents. This was sent to us many years ago, a single 



plant only, by Mr. G. Ure Skinner and which was named Cattleya 



guatenialensis ; the plant was afterwards lost. Another plant has 



recently reappeared in the collection of the Right Hon. Joseph 



Chamberlain at Highbui'y, near Birmingham, and which should bear 



the name of Epicattleya guatemalensis. The Aulizeum Epidendra 



come so near Cattleya structurally that the occurrence of a cross 



proving fertile between a species of the one and a species of the other 



locally associated is not surprising. t To this may with almost equal 



confidence be added Cattleya Lindleyana (Hort.), Lcelia Lindleyana 



(nobis), a curious and extremely rare orchid that has been introduced 



from Santa Catherina in southern Brazil. Mr. Rolfe suspects that it 



may be a generic hybrid between C. inter uiedia and Brassavola tuber- 



culata, both of which grow wild in the province of Santa Catherina.j 



The facts we have stated respecting generic hybrids naturally suggest 



the question, How will these bigeneric crosses affect the stability of the 



genera as at present circumscribed 1 § Glancing over the whole range 



* Lcelia anccps, L. albida, L. aututivaalis, L. furfuracea, L. rubescens, L. supcrhiens. 



t This hylnid might be adduced in support of Reichenbach's proposal to merge Cattleya into 

 Kpidendrum (Xen. Orch. II. p. 26), but one bigeneric hybrid does not combine the two genera 

 from which it sprung any more than one swallow makes a summer. 



:;: Gard. Chron. V. s. 3 (1889), p. 437. 



§ Hybridisation of Orchids, by H. J. Yeitch, in .Tonrn. Royal Hort. Hoc. vol. VII. p. 34. 



