146 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JULY, £917 
note books, though a good deal of it is of a personal character, and is 
probably lost. It is fortunate that some valuable records of this kind have 
been preserved with herbarium specimens, though in a good many cases 
such details were not recorded upon the tickets. 
The history of the remarkable Uropedium Lindenii, given on anothet 
page in connection with that of Cypripedium caudatum, establishes two 
points very clearly, namely that it must have arisen from the latter as a 
mutation or reversion, and that it has succeeded in establishing itself 
independently and extending its area to stations where the Cypripedium is 
not found. This fact invites an enquiry as to the particular iusect which 
fertilises the Cypripedium, and how the Uropedium has managed to 
succeed so well without its pouch. It is the best instance that we can 
recall of the establishment of what has been considered as a distinct genus 
by mutation. It is curious that C. caudatum Wallisii should have in- 
dependently made the same attempt, and it would now be interesting to try 
the effect of self-fertilising the Uropedium. It is known that abnormal 
forms can be perpetuated by seed, but they seldom succeed in the far more 
serious task of establishing themselves independently in a state of nature. 
Freaks and monstrosities are, of course, common among garden plants, 
and are preserved, and even worked for, because of their decorative value, 
but they are rare or evanescent in nature. They represent for the most part 
discordant combinations of characters, which cannot maintain themselves 
in the struggle for existence with the environment. Apostles of the seed 
pan and the breeding pen seem to think that the origin of these freaks is 
subject to definite laws, and that their study will solve the whole question 
of the origin of species in nature. One extreme geneticist claims that this 
problem can alone be solved by such methods, and that “in discovering the 
methods of evolution the initiative is denied to the paleontologist, the 
zoogeographer, and the morphologist.’’ But the geneticist cannot begin at 
the beginning, and he is as unable to estimate what have been the govern- 
ing forces as he would be to control them if known. And there is always 
the time element to reckon with. One experimenter has devoted “some 
years of study ” to the habit alone of a single species of plant, and has 
published pages of statistics, and he remarks that ‘‘ many more years must 
pass before the work can be completed.” And when conclusive results are 
obtained they may not apply to some other species which has a totally 
different habit, to say nothing of the existence of multitudinous other 
characters. A study of afflnities, combined with the geographical dis- 
tribution of closely allied species, is far more likely to afford a clue to what 
has been the course of evolution in the past. 
