eg ee = 
JANUARY, 1911.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 15 
supposed to be Dalhousieanum X aureum, are grown in various composts 
for the sake of experiment. Those in Osmunda fibre and moss are the 
healthiest, and as the others increase in size they will de put into that com- 
post. Neither polypodium fibre nor leaf soil seems to be lasting enough for 
these Orchids. Against the glass division is another shelf on a level with 
the others, and here I keep my choicest plants. Here are three seedlings of 
Odontoglossum Harryanum X Oncidium tigrinum, which should be quite 
interesting when they flower. 
All my plants are sprayed overhead once a day in spring and autumn, 
and on bright days in winter, but asthe house is small, and dries quickly, 
syringing is required three or four times daily in summer. The staging and 
path is damped morning and evening throughout the year. I am particularly 
careful to see that only pure rain water is used for direct application to the 
plants, but the floor and staging is damped with ordinary water. Lately I 
have been damping the path once a week with soot water, and as it has 
encouraged active rooting, from the Cattleyas and Lzlias especially, I think 
it must do good. 
Shading is done by means of a tiffany blind. This I lower on bright 
days from April to September, but only while the sun is shining on the 
house. It is only used in exceptionally sunny weather after September. 
(To be continued.) 
HYBRIDS AND THE USE OF THE x. 
OUR readers will not fail to notice the omission of the sign of hybridity, 
*“* X,” from the names of hybrids in our present issue. The change has 
long been foreshadowed. Over four years ago we pointed out that hybrids 
had become so numerous that having to distinguish them individually led 
to great inconvenience and waste of space, and we then decided to omit the 
sign from the names of generic hybrids, an the ground that where all were 
hybrids it was unnecessary, though we did not then propose to go further 
(O.R., xiv. p. 283). The system was adopted many years ago tc distinguish 
hybrids from species, but in the case of Orchids it may be said to have 
broken down under its own weight. A glance at the genus Cattleya in the 
Index to our last volume—and it is not the worst genus—will show that 
the hybrids there dealt with are nearly three times as numerous as the 
species, confirming a remark formerly made that in some genera it would 
be less trouble to adopt some sign to distinguish the species. And the use 
of the sign gives little information now-a-days, when we have hybrids of 
almost every degree of complexity. Besides this there are plants which 
were originally described as species but afterwards were recognised as 
natural hybrids. Another confusing element is the fact that the sign ‘* X ” 
is used in a double sense. For example, in the phrase “‘ Lelia cinnabarina 
