66 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [MaRcH, 1916. 
existing garden plants, and his choice of parents is thus limited at the out- 
set. The problem is to combine visible characters that exist in different 
individuals or to create new and intermediate ones. The result is not 
always what was anticipated, and in any case the best of the offspring are 
selected for further experiment. Now comes in that bewildering amount of 
reversion that was seen in Mr. Seden’s very first experiment in raising a 
secondary hybrid, which not only showed the unseen factors behind the 
visible characters, but also led to an attempt to explain them. Hypbridists 
work for visible characters, Mendelians seeks to identify the invisible factors 
behind them, but both work by definite experiments, and are equally unable 
to control the results. Hybridists must realise by this time that Mendelism 
provides no royal road to success. 
katz 
ORCHIDS FROM ASHTON-ON-MERSEY. Bec) 
HREE beautiful flowers are sent from the collection of Philip Smith, 
Esq., Haddon House, Ashton-on-Mersey, by Mr. W. Thompson, all 
of which have received Awards of Merit at Manchester. Odontoglossum 
crispum Northern Glory (A.M., Feb. 3rd) is a remakably fine thing, with 
an expanse of four inches from tip to tip of the petals; the segments 
broad, well crisped, and the ground colour white, copiously blotched with 
red in a zone about an inch broad. Odontioda Sunset (Odm. loochrist- 
iense x Oda. Vuylstekez) (A.M., Feb. 17th) is a well-shaped flower, with 
an expanse of nearly three inches, and copiously blotched with dark 
crimson on a dark yellow ground, which latter forms a distinct tracery 
among the blotches, while the margin is dark crimson. The broad lip bears 
two blotches in front of the crest, and many small ones at the side. The 
third is Cypripedium Tigris (Mrs. Wm. Mostyn xX Earl of Tankerville), 2 
handsome flower, with large purple-brown blotches on the dorsal sepal, and 
some smaller ones on the lower half of the petals, the upper half of the lip 
being well-suffused with purple-brown. This received an A.M. on Feb. 3rd, 
under the name of C. Marphil, a similar award going to C. Ruby-King (see 
p- 86), which has now been altered to C. Moira (Priam X bingleyense). 
Mr. Thompson remarks that these two plants were bought in flower 
unnamed, with the record of parentage given, but when exhibited at 
Manchester on Jan. 25th the parentage was disputed. They were there- 
fore noted in the report as C. Ruby King (parentage unknown) and C. 
Marphil (? x Earl of Tankerville). But the article at page 33, and the 
report of the London meeting convinced them that they were the plants 
exhibited at the R.H.S. This has been confirmed by the vendor, and the 
names have been altered to C. Moira and C. Tigris. 
