98 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [ApRIL, 1916. 
ees 
N the last number of the Orchid Review (p. 65) you invite discussion upon 
Hybridisation, particularly as it relates to the genus Dendrobium. 
There are probably few places in which a larger number of experiments 
have been made with this genus than in my garden at Gatton. To give 
anything approaching an exhaustive account of the results is impossible, 
and I cannot give the time to make this letter so complete as I should like, 
or as would be the case in less critical times. After all, the result, as would 
be expected, varies little from that obtained in respect to other species, and 
is as full of disappointment and surprises. Who, for instance, would 
anticipate that the insignificant and dull D. aureum would give the brilliant 
D. Artemis, and, as a secondary hybrid, D. Lady Colman! and that when 
united with D. signatum, it would give such a poor result as D. Ophir? 
Again, it seems inconsistent that crossing together the finer varieties of 
hybrids and species, of which D. Rubens elegans, D. nobile nobilius, and 
D. Lady Colman may be taken as types, we do not more frequently obtain 
as results extra large-sized and deep-coloured varieties. Is there some 
hidden virtue in D. aureum which produces increasing size and substance 
in succeeding generations, and has the limit been reached with D. Lady 
Colmar? The latter crossed with D. Rubens elegans—one of my finest 
hybrids—has produced a smaller, not as hoped, a larger flower, although 
still something very much finer than we were accustomed to a few years 
ago. Other experiments in the same direction have not yet been proved by 
flowering. Again, the insignificant but distinct D. Hildebrandii, of which 
you gave an account and figure at page 73, has proved one of the most 
satisfactory of parents, and has produced some of the most lovely of the 
Dendrobium hybrids, amongst which pre-eminently stands D. Wiganianum; 
and the secondary hybrids from this have in many cases proved almost 
equally charming, for instance, D. Duchess of Albany, D. Princess Patricia 
of Connaught, and D. Mrs. Alfred Rogers, all raised at Gatton, and akin to 
D. Wiganianum. On the other hand, who can have anticipated the 
miserable results of crossing such delicate and pleasing varieties as D- 
nobile virginale with D. viridescens? At Gatton nearly everything has 
been crossed and recrossed with D. signatum; but although a few very fine 
results, as D. chessingtonense and D. Golden Ray, have been obtained, the 
result on the whole is disappointing, and we have not yet succeeded in 
obtaining a large yellow-flowered hybrid, which has been our aim and 
ambition. Anyone who can successfully hybridize such varieties as D- 
formosum giganteum, D. Dalhousieanum, D. chrysotoxum, and similar 
HYBRID DENDROBIUMS. beers 
