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VoL. XIX.] FEBRUARY, tIgIt. fNo. 218. 
THE ORCHID STUD. BOOK. 
In concluding the Orchid Stud-Book the intention was announced of 
publishing future additions in the Orchid Review, so as to prevent the work 
from falling out of date, and we have now pleasure in giving the first instal- 
ment. It has long been foreseen that some modification of the arrangement 
was necessary, the indiscriminate mixing of primary, secondary and more 
complex hybrids in one list, according to the exigencies of an alphabetical 
arrangement, not being at all satisfactory. The remarkable amount of 
reversion seen in secondary hybrids renders them a class by themselves, a 
matter not so fully realised when the work in question was commenced, but 
which was explained in detail with the preface (p. vi.). Other modifications 
have been found necessary in the different method of publication, one of 
them being the omission or postponement of the separate classification 
under the parents (Part I. of the Stud-Book). 
The departure from a strict alphabetical arrangement allows us to take 
the genera more in the order of their importance, and we have commenced 
with Odontioda, in which remarkable progress is being made, the five 
primary hybrids of the Stwd-Book having been trebled, while at least fourteen 
secondary hybrids have been added, four of which have an Odontioda for 
one parent, while in three cases both parents are themselves hybrids. 
The arrangement largely explains itself. But we may add that primary 
hybrids are derived direct from species, hence those having one or both 
parents of hybrid origin are treated as secondary. Secondary hybrids may 
be of various degrees of complexity, but it is feared that any attempt to 
subdivide them further would entail unnecessary difficulties. In both 
cases plants of identical parentage are brought under the same name. In 
the case of primary hybrids it is practicable to regard all as forms of the 
original, but with the amount of reversion known to occur among secondary 
hybrids, even from the same capsule, one can only bring them together to 
indicate their common origin. Those of unknown parentage are enumerated 
at the end, in the hope that their origin may be ascertained later. We 
hope that any error or omission will be pointed out, and we will at once 
rectify it. 
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