6 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
gardener, Mr. Murray, should encourage others to persevere in their 
experiments in this interesting field. 
Another recent hybrid deserves special mention. I allude to Calanthe 
xX albata, recently exhibted by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., which at last 
successfully combines the evergreen and deciduous sections of the genus. 
Many attempts have previously been made, and now that the gap has once 
been bridged over I expect to see greater variety introduced into the charm- 
ing group of hybrids which has originated by the intercrossing of Calanthe 
vestita and its allies. Repeated failures had led to the belief that such ex- 
periments were useless, as the two refused to combine, just as in the case of 
the temperate and tropical species of Cypripedium—I beg pardon, I mean 
Cypripedium and Paphiopedium. 
And this brings me to the important paper on the Cypripedium group 
by Mr. Rolfe in the last two issues of the Review, and their bearing on the 
nomenclature question. The genera of Orchids are notoriously difficult to 
deal with, and these new genera seem to be better defined than are some of 
the old ones, which everybody admits. Are they then to beadopted? The 
case of Selenipedium serves to afford some sort of guide as to the proper 
course to follow. It might be said that until recently this name was hardly 
recognised in gardens, and now it appears that it must be given up again in 
favour of something else. But on the other hand it is clear that its author 
is largely to blame for its want of recognition. To repeat a remark made. 
nearly two years ago in these pages (supra, III., p. 75) :—‘‘ Had Reichen- 
bach had the courage of his opinions when separating Selenipedium as a 
distinct genus, in 1854, the inconvenience of the change would scarcely have 
been felt, so few were the species then in cultivation, but he adopted a sort 
of double-barrelled nomenclature, giving one name for science and another 
for gardens—a system whose absurdity must be apparent to everyone who 
will reflect for a moment.” I don’t know that T can improve on that, and 
so the case of the Selenipedium must be held up as an awful warning, in 
more senses than one. 
The alteration of names well known in gardens is an undoubted 
nuisance, but it is sometimes necessary as new discoveries are made, and the 
present instance seems to be one of them. How soon the new names will 
become current in gardens depends to a great extent how soon we become 
familiar with them. Already Paphiopedium has been introduced into 
Count Kerchove’s Le Livre des Orchidees and Stein’s Handbuch, and others 
will probably follow suit, so that in time I suppose we shall become familiar 
with them. But I hope those who make the transfers to the new genera 
