Nov.-Dec., 1918.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 229 
ka NATURAL HYBRID ORCHIDS. ees 
HEN, in 1853, Lindley described Phalznopsis intermedia (Paxt. Fl. 
Gard., lil. p. 163, fig. 310), he remarked :—‘‘ It is not improbable 
that this beautiful plant is a natural mule between P. amabilis and P. rosea: 
It agrees with the former in foliage and in the tendrils of the lip; with the 
latter in colour, in the acuteness of its petals, and in the peculiar form of 
the middie lobe of the lip. . . Flowers half way in size between P. 
amabilis and P. rosea.” In an article written some years ago we remarked 
that this appeared to be the earliest recorded tropical natural hybrid 
Orchid, but that in place of P. amabilis we must now write P. Aphrodite, 
and we added that it was not a little curious that so shrewd a remark 
should have been made before a single artificial hybrid was in existence, and 
at a time when Dominy was only making his earliest experiments. We 
subsequently discovered the source of the inspiration, which was set forth in 
an able article in the Gardeners’ Chronicle (1852, pp. 803, 804), some months 
before Phalaenopsis intermedia was described. The writer, of course, was 
Dr. Lindley, and part of it is here given :— 
“Do Orchidaceous plants produce hybrids? is a question often asked, 
and never answered satisfactorily. It is probable that they do, because their 
natural powers are identical with those of other plants; and there is no 
apparent reason why the ability given to Lilies, Amaryllids, and Irids, 
should be denied to Orchids. There is also a strong presumption that the 
difficulties attending a precise definition of certain supposed species in such 
Orchidaceous genera as Maxillaria, Orchis, Ophrys, Oncidium, Epiden- 
drum, Dendrobium, &c., are connected with the occasional production 
naturally of intermediate forms of hybrid origin. But proof was, till lately, 
Wanting. Mr, R6per had indeed pointed out a presumed mule between 
Orchis fusca and O. militaris; and similar evidence regarding Ophrys was 
obtained by Mutel. It is, however, to Mr. Weddell that is due the direct 
Proof of the occurrence of mule Orchids in nature. 
“It appears from an article in the Annales des Sciences, vol. xviii., that 
for rx years past the pupils who attend M. de Jussieu’s herborisations in 
the Forest of Fontainebleu, have remarked a plant wholly intermediate 
between the Man Orchis (Aceras anthropophora) and the Military Orchis. 
Mr. Weddell first remarked it in the year 1841, and a good many specimens 
@ © Observed last summer among the coppice. In the same place only the 
‘Wo other Orchises were found between which this must be a hybrid, as is 
‘town, we think conclusively, by one of Riocreux’s charming figures which 
‘companies Mr. Weddell’s memoir. The spike of the mule was more 
