290 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [OcToBER, 1914, 
bronzy yellow, like the one certificated, the other being purple. The 
variation is remarkable, and there are several forms of great promise, for it 
must be remembered that the seedlings are only producing their first 
flowers, and consequently are not yet fully developed. 
The series of figures is interesting in connection with the claim recently 
made that new species arise by crossing, and if the validity of the claim 
were admitted—which it is not—it would be an interesting subject for 
speculation as to precisely how many new “species” such a batch of 
seedlings might contain. But the fact is there is no parallelism between 
these hybrid segregates and species as they occur in nature, indeed hybrid 
segregates frequently do occur in nature where allied species grow intermixed, 
but to regard them as identical with the forms from which they arise is not 
only to ignore their origin, but to lose all sense of proportion. Such a view 
has been very well described as “ grotesque.” 
The remark was made in a Presidential Address by Prof. Arthur Dendy 
which opened the Proceedings of the Section of Zoology at the recent 
meeting of the British Association at Melbourne, which in a sense may be 
regarded as a reply to the Address we commented on last month. In the 
main it dealt with general principles, and thus is as applicable to the 
evolution of Orchids as to that of any other group of organisms. Inde 
Prof. Dendy emphasised the fact that one might begin anywhere and trace 
the course of organic evolution. A brief outline of the argument will 
certainly be interesting to Orchidists. : 
At the outset Prof. Dendy alluded to early views on Evolution, which 
found little acceptance until Darwin elaborated a logical explanation of the 
way in which it might be supposed to have taken place. The doctrine ot 
Organic Evolution was now unassailable, and the only remaining serious 
difference of opinion was as to the way it had been brought about, whether 
by individual response to a changing environment, by the selection of 
favourable variations, by mutations, or by crossing, and probably there '§ 
an element of truth in all of them. There is unmistakable evidence that 
Evolution has been progressive, and on definite and divergent lines; he 
organisms are more or less precisely adapted to the conditions under which 
they have to live, and that the result has been the origination of a vast 
number of well-defined groups which we call “ species.” The first was the 
most fundamental, and the accumulation of potential energy might be 
regarded as the cause of progress. Each generation accumulates more 
energy than it requires for its own maintenance, and there is reaso® fo 
believe that this has been progressive throughout the whole coursé 
