162 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JuLy, 1916. 
whether the objections do not outweigh the supposed advantages. At the 
very outset comes in the question of ownership, and here a point said to 
have been agreed upon in France, that the first individual to register a 
particular novelty should be declared the lawful owner, is quoted with 
approval. Such a scheme could not possibly be applied to the discovery 
and introduction of a wild plant, and scarcely to indistinguishable hybrids 
raised independently by different operators. It might occur to several 
people that a hybrid between, say, Cochlioda Neetzliana and Odonto- 
glossum Har-yanum would make a fine horticultural acquisition, and if 
they put their ideas into practice, no case could be made out for a 
monopoly being given to the first seedling that happened to flower and get 
registered. The case is not altogether suppositious. And Dendrobium 
Wiganiz, which flowered-with Sir. Frederick Wigan, Bart., at Clare Lawn, 
in March, 1896, appeared shortly afterwards with Messrs. Veitch and Sir 
Trevor Lawrence. All were the result of independent attempts to 
introduce a yellow colour into the fine Dendrobiums of the D. nobile group. 
Even if it were a question of repeating’a cross that some one else had 
proved successful, we do not see how anyone could be prevented from 
crossing plants that were his own property. If protection is only sought 
against the reproduction of the actual plant certificated it would not carry 
one far in the case of Orchids, as propagation is in many cases notoriously 
slow, and before a stock was obtained other seedlings that were practically 
indistinguishable might appear. The question of the use of a certificated 
name would also arise, but any prohibition would lead to an inordinate 
multiplication of synonymy unless limited to varietal names, including 
Florists’ varieties, and even then would be difficult to apply in the case 
where plants of independent origin proved indistinguishable. 
The question has often been discussed, but the difficulties have hitherto 
proved insuperable, and we remember that at the Hybridisation Conference 
held in London in 1889 Mr. George Bunyard claimed that the remedy lay 
in the raiser’s own hands. All he had to do was to raise a stock of a 
novelty and place a remunerative price upon each plant before parting with 
any. The whole subject bristles with difficulties, and prohibitory measures, 
unless very carefully guarded, would tend to discourage individual 
experiment, and retard progress. Besides, protection has a habit of cutting 
both ways, and raisers should be careful how they forge a weapon that 
might be used against themselves. 
Several references to the policy of growing Orchids during these 
strenuous times have appeared in the public press, one of which was 
