THE ORCHID REVIEW. 

 What say other readers ? Now this leaf-mould s 

 3ts inside, and covered up I suppose. 



any one tried Jarrydal wood baskets ? I hear 

 e, even in running streams. 



Jas. Hamiltoi 



NOMENCLATURE OF HYBRIDS. 



What will happen, in a few years, in the nomenclature of Orchids ? It 

 seems to me that it will be very difficult to classify the hybrids, even from 

 the same seed pod, and that it will be with them as it is now with foliage 

 Begonias, amongst which the varieties are almost as numerous as the seed- 

 lings raised. It seems that the further we get from the types, the more 

 varieties are found in seedlings from the same pod. 



In the primary hybrids, those between two distinct species, all the 

 plants have more or less common characters, which enable us to recognize 

 them ; but secondary hybrids are more unlike, and when we come to those 

 of the third or fourth degree— hybrids between hybrids— it is often difficult, 

 or even impossible, to believe that the young plants came from the same 

 seed pod. This is the case with the flowers sent herewith. 



These came from a cross between Paphiopedilum X Leeanum (Spicer- 

 ianum X insigne) and P. X Sallieri (insigne X villosum), and it is very 

 curious to observe the difference between these flowers, some of them being 

 green, others yellow ; some having numerous spots, black, brown, or purple, 

 on the dorsal sepal, others having this sepal pure white with a purple line, 

 or green or yellow margined with white, without any spots. 



We flowered about fifty or sixty plants of these seedlings, and I can say 

 we could not find two varieties alike ; even the form varies considerably, 

 some approaching P. insigne, villosum or X Leeanum, and others present- 

 ing much analogy with P. X Lathamianum (Spicerianum X villosum). 



All who have seen these plants in flower were astonished at the great 

 difference between the varieties. Twelve or fifteen were really beautiful, 

 and worth a distinct name, and although it is impossible to give them all 

 the same name, I think it rather awkward to give ten, fifteen, or twenty 

 names to the same number of plants which were all raised from the same 



For the present, I have named all these plants P. X variabile, because 

 of the numerous forms found amongst them. But all seedlings cannot be 

 called " variabile," and this is why I ask, What will happen with the nomen- 

 clature of hybrid Orchids ? I have read with much interest your different 

 considerations of that subject in the Orchid Review, and this is the reason 



