6i8 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



purpose are Cypripedium acaule, C. Cakeolus, and C. spectabile, 

 many species of Ophrys, and a number of interesting Orchis, of 

 which O. foliosa and O. latifolia are two of the easiest grown 

 and the most beautiful. 



Culture. — Hardy Orchids require a position somewhat 

 sheltered from the bright rays of the sun in summer, and from 

 excessive cold and wet in winter. The material best suited for 

 their requirements is a mixture of fibrous loam, peat, and leaf- 

 mould, with a liberal sprinkling of coarse sand. If planted in 

 the rockery particular attention should be given to the matter 

 of drainage to prevent, as far as possible, excessive accumulations 

 of water about the roots. The least stagnation is liable to have 



disastrous effects on any 

 ; v" kind of hardy Orchids. 



' Hybridisation. 



s *^i This interesting branch 



j^ in the culture of Orchids 



K is practically only in its 



^^^^^ 1&. infancy, although thirty- 



seven years have elapsed 

 since the first artificially- 

 raised hybrid flowered 

 in this country. It was 

 obtained by the late 

 Mr. J. Dominy in the 

 Exeter nurseries of 

 Messrs. J. Veitch and 

 Sons, by the inter- 

 crossing of Calanthe 

 Masuca and C.furcata, 

 and was named C. 

 Dominii. Mr. Dominy 

 continued raising seed- 

 lings at Exeter with 

 success. When the firm removed to the Royal Exotic Nurseries, 

 in King's Road, Chelsea, a few years later, encouraged by 

 the success he had achieved, and with fresh material constantly 

 coming to hand, Mr. Dominy was enabled to considerably extend 

 his operations, with the result that many of the most beautiful 

 hybrids raised by that pioneer of Orchid hybridisation are still 

 among the choicest and most valuable in up-to-date collections. 

 Mr. Dominy was succeeded in the -middle of the sixties by Mr. 

 J. Seden, who has continued crossing and intercrossing both 

 hybrids and species uninterruptedly up to the present, with the 

 result that scarcely a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society is 

 held without the introduction of some new and startling novelty 

 in hybridisation, by the firm. Lcelio-Cattleya Dominiana (Fig. 401) 



Fig. 399. — Odontoglossum Pescatorei 

 Veitchii. 



