HISTORY OF ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. XXIII. 
FatsE Hysrips.—There is another kind of prepotency—if the term is 
indeed applicable—in which the seedlings resemble the sced parent entirely, 
the influence of the pollen parent being apparently lost. Zygopetalum 
Mackay furnishes one of the best known examples, for it has been crossed 
with more than one species of Odontoglossum, also with such diverse plants 
as Lycaste Skinneri, Oncidium tigrinum, and Lelia anceps, and yet the 
seedlings in each case resembled the seed parent entirely. It is nota case 
of self-fertilisation, for in each case the pollen of the Zygopetalum was 
carefully removed (and unless the foreign pollen is applied to the stigma 
no capsule is produced). It is suspected to be a case of parthenogenesis, 
the stimulus of pollination sufficing to cause the ovules to develop into buds. 
These and other similar cases are worthy of further investigation from a 
biological standpoint, but they are outside the scope of the present work. 
The very term * false” hybrids implies a doubt whether they are hybrids at 
all in a true sense. 
SECONDARY Hysrips form a very numerous class. They have arisen 
from the intercrossing of primary hybrids, either with their own parent 
species, with different species, or with each other. Their existence 
necessarily involves the question of the fertility of hybrids, which we have 
not touched upon, but which for the present may, in the majority of cases, 
be taken for granted. The one striking difference between secondary and 
primary hybrids is the much greater variability of the former. It may not 
be equally apparent in all cases, especially where the original parents are 
very closely allied, but it is so common as to have attracted universal 
attention, and various attempts have been made to explain it. The facts 
are beyond dispute, and the controversial side of the question may be 
omitted. 
This great variability was noticed when the very first batch of secondary 
hybrids flowered, as already mentioned (p. x.), and it may be interesting to 
record an observation made at the time. Five of the seedlings of Lelio- 
cattleya x fausta (then called Cattleya x fausta) were painted by Mr. John 
Day, who remarked as follows (Orch. Draw. xxx. t. 31): “ Mr. Seden tells me 
that they raised seven plants of it only (or that only seven have flowered), 
and they were all different. This he attributes to the fact that the pollen 
parent, Cattleya exoniensis, is itself a hybrid between C. Mossiz and Lelia 
crispa, and some of the offspring have run back to their grandparents, and 
some have taken more to their mamma, C. Loddigesi.””, The remark is 
interesting on another account, for it shows that Mr. Seden had then 
correctly diagnosed the much-disputed parentage of the pollen parent. 
SECONDARY HYBRIDS DERIVED FROM Two SPECIES are necessarily 
primary hybrids intercrossed with one of their own parents, and these now 
form a very numerous class. Phragmopedilum x Sedeni re-crossed with 
