XSI. HISTORY OF ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. 
different ways, and it may be added that when hybrids between Brasso- 
cattleya and Brassolelia appear, also between Brassolelia and Leelio- 
cattleya, they will also have to be included under Brassocatlelia, which will 
exhaust the possible ways of obtaining this artificial or hybrid genus. 
In one of these fourteen trigeneric hybrids, namely Brassocatlelia x 
Lawrencei, both the parents were themselves hybrids, and an analysis 
shows that it has four species in its composition, Brassavola tuberculata, 
Cattleya intermedia, C. Leopoldi, and Lelia purpurata. 
SPECIFIC COMPOSITION OF HYBRIDS. 
An analysis of the specific composition of the hybrids enumerated would 
give some curious results. Hybrids may be divided into primary and 
secondary, and the latter include hybrids of various degrees of complexity. 
There are hybrids derived from two species, from three, from four, and in 
one case even from five, anda brief consideration of these several classes 
will be interesting. 
Primary Hyenips are the result of crossing distinct species, sometimes 
belonging to different genera, and necessarily represent the first stage in the 
process. Primary hybrids almost invariably show a blend of the parental 
characters, and can usually be fairly described as intermediate, though in a 
few cases one parent is apparently prepotent over the other, and thus may 
be described as dominant. The seedlings, even out of the same capsule, 
often vary slightly between themselves, and the variation is increased when 
different varieties of the same species are used, but the differences are 
seldom great, and no difficulty is experienced in assigning all as forms of 
the same hybrid. Reversing the cross seldom makes any difference, for in 
many cases where the reverse cross has been made the result is practically 
identical. 
PREPOTENCY, already mentioned, sometimes exhibits itself in a very 
peculiar way. Either parent may exert this prepotent character. In the 
case of Cattleya x lamberhurstensis it is the seed parent, C: intermedia, 
which is dominant, but in Epiphronitis x Veitchii it is the pollen parent, 
Epidendrum radicans, and the character is so marked, both in habit and 
floral structure, that without actual evidence no one would suspect that it 
was a seedling from Sophronitis grandiflora. Epicattleya x matutina, 
Epilelia X Charlesworthii and a few others exhibit the same kind of pre- 
potency. All are suspected to be cases of partial reversion, the hybrids 
resembling the more ancestral of the two parents. The idea is borne out by 
the disappearance of other characters which may be considered as of 
comparatively recent development. For example, the peculiar beak- 
like staminode of Paphiopedilum Rothschildianum is invariably lost in its 
hybrids, the organ reverting to the more typical shield-shaped form. 
