Bye SEE 
or ae 
The Orchid Review 4 
on VOL...xav. 3 OcTosper, 1917. No. 298. : 3 
(ee OUR NOTE BOOK. are) 
OME interesting questions relating to hybrids have been accumulating, 
and one of them is the best way of dealing with the numerous hybrids. 
of unknown or unrecorded parentage. The most practical course we can 
suggest is to fit them into their proper places as nearly as possible by 
comparison with existing hybrids of known parentage. The majority, we 
believe, are stray seedlings from batches of known parentage,"’ though there 
are others that are distinct of which the record has been lost, perhaps in a 
few cases never put down in black and white, and memory is proverbially 
fickle. Another cause of error on which a correspondent lays some 
emphasis is the accidental misplacing of labels during potting operations ; 
but this is by no means limited to hybrids. A useful means of preventing 
the latter confusion is to have a number of small strips of lead stamped 
with a series of running numbers, corresponding to a numbered Catalogue 
in which the names are written. These lead strips are easily clipped round 
the rim of the pot, and thus are less liable to be misplaced. In some 
collections all the plants are numbered in this way, in preference to having 
the name of each plant written on a separate label, and the Catalogue is 
kept in some handy place for a quick reference when required. The history 
of the plant can also be recorded with the name, and we have seen the 
system adopted with much success, both with established plants and hybrid 
seedlings. 
Of course, it is essential that the Catalogue should not get astray, or 
the numbers would be useless, and this recalls a batch of numbered 
seedlings that were pointed out to us some time ago. They had been 
purchased ata sale in the belief that the crosses were good, but no trace of 
a Catalogue was forthcoming, and some of them ultimately gave a great 
deal of trouble on reaching the flowering stage, for the owner likes to have 
his plants correctly named, a thing which is not always possible in such 
cases. In establishments where progressive hybridisation is carried on as a 
business, a very methodical system of recording by means of numbers is- 
adopted, but even here stray seedlings occur, though on flowering it is often 
217 
