THE HISTORY OF ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. 
| 
/ On the 28th of October, 1856,” writes Dr. Lindley (Gard. Chron., 1858, 
p- 4), ““ Mr. James Veitch, jun., of the Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, brought 
to the writer of this memorandum a flower of a Calanthe, which combined 
the peculiar hairy forked spur and deeply lobed lip of the white Calanthe 
furcata, with the violet colour and broad middle lobe of the lip of C. 
Masuca. One might have said that the flowers were just intermediate 
between the two.... It appears that it had been raised in the Exotic 
Nursery, by Mr. Dominy, Messrs. Veitch’s indefatigable and very intelligent 
foreman, between C. Masuca and C. furcata. The seed was obtained in 
1854 by crossing these two species, was immediately sown, and in two 
years the seedlings were in flower. | Nor is it the least remarkable 
circumstance connected with this‘ production that it grows and flowers 
freely, while C. Masuca is a ‘shy’ plant. We therefore propose, with 
much pleasure, that the name of the hybrid be Calanthe Domini, in order to 
put upon record the name of the first man who succeeded in this operation. 
He is indeed specially entitled to this distinction, not only in consequence 
of having produced other Orchidaceous mules, among which we under- 
stand are Cattleyas, but because of his eminent success in raising such 
plants from seed, as a matter of horticultural business.” This was over a 
year after the event, butLit is upon record that when Mr. Veitch first 
showed him the plant the Doctor exclaimed, ‘‘ Why, you will drive the 
botanists mad! + TPhis historic plant*is figured as the frontispiece to the 
present work. 
It was Mr. John Harris, a surgeon, of Exeter, who suggested to Dominy 
the possibility of muling Orchids, and who pointed out to him the 
reproductive organs seated in the column, and showed that the application 
of the pollinia to the stigmatic surface was analagous to the dusting of the 
stigma of other flowers with pollen. 
The Rev. W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, had previously suggested 
the possibility of raising hybrid Orchids. In a paper entitled “On 
Hybridisation among Vegetables,” published in 1847 (Journ. Hort. Soc., ii. 
p. 104), he remarked, ‘‘ Cross breeding among Orchidaceous plants would 
perhaps lead to very startling results; but, unfortunately, they are not 
easily raised by seed. I have, however, raised Bletia, Cattleya, Orchis 
(Herminium) Monorchis and Ophrys aranifera from seed ; and if I were 
not during the greater part of the year absent from the place where my 
plants are deposited, I think I could succeed in obtaining crosses in that 
order. I had well-formed pods last spring of Orchis by pollen of Ophrys 
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