THE ORCHID REVIEW. 243 
The hybrids recorded in the two preceding notes, as well as those 
previously mentioned in these pag+s, raise one or two very curious questions. 
Taking first the case of C. Spicerianum crossed with the pollen of C, 
niveum, we note that one plant proved to be a true hybrid, yet the other 
seedlings are said to have been true Spicerianum; and this again raises the 
question whether after fertilisation of the ovules has been effected by the 
agency of foreign pollen, the mother plant may not in some cases exert such 
a preponderating influence as to obliterate all traces of the pollen parent in 
the offspring. Such an explanation seems necessary to account for the cases 
of C. callosum @ X C. X microchilum g (supra, p. 170), C. barbatum ? 
x C. niveum ¢ (III., p. 20r) and of Zygopetalum Mackayi crossed with 
various Odontoglossums (II., p. 166) and with Oncidium unguiculatum (V., 
P. 139), in all of which the influence of the pollen parent was nearly or quite 
obliterated. An alternative suggestion is that C. Spicerianum may have 
been partly self-fertilised, which, however, seems improbable, for in such 
cases foreign pollen seems not to exert any influence. Still more remark- 
able is the case of C. Godefroye ? crossed with C. niveum 3 (supra IL., p. 
227), for it is reported that this cross yielded, from the same capsule, 
examples of both the parents, also of C. concolor, C. bellatulum, C. leuco- 
chilum, and nearly fifty intermediate forms. The question then asked, how- 
ever,—‘‘ Is there not some mistake here?”’—still remains unanswered, and one 
can only wonder whether the experiment was conducted under conditions 
which precluded all possibility of mistake. If the plants still exist it would 
be interesting to have them critically compared. And in the case of the one 
here figured, the question occurs, What has become of the other seedlings 
from the same capsule, which looked “Spicerianum stock’? We would 
suggest that these experiments should be repeated, and the results carefully 
recorded. 
On the question of multiple crossses a few words may be said. It is of 
course easy to apply the pollen of several species to the stigma of a given 
flower at the same time, but the resulting seedlings are not necessarily 
multiple hybrids. If each produced pollen tubes the probability is that 
those of one species would outgrow the others, and even if all developed 
equally the chances of one ovule being fertilised by more than one species 
are very slight, though it would be rash to deny the possibility of pollen 
tubes from two different species reaching the micropyle of the ovule 
simultaneously. We can only say that evidence of such a phenomenon is 
not yet to hand—nor indeed, of the production of two distinct hybrids 
from the same capsule. A few experiments with mixed pollen, using only 
two well-marked species to begin with, would probably throw some light 
on this interesting question.—Ep. 
Te eed 
