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Avcust, 1911.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 253 
In the conservatory were several Thunias, such as alba and 
Marshalliana, and a huge specimen of Sobralia macrantha covered with a 
mass of its Cattleya-like flowers. Mr. Neale is a keen Orchidist, and takes 
a great interest in all that pertains to Orchidology, while he is also 
President of the Cardiff Gardeners’ Association. 
ORCHID HYBRIDISATION. 
SEVERAL interesting questions are raised in the discussion on Orchid 
Hybridisation at the meeting of the Orchid Committee of the German 
Horticultural Society, which is summarised by Mr. C. F. Karthaus at page 
129, and we may now attempt a reply. 
M. Beyrodt expressed the opinion that hybrids are often less beautiful 
than their parents. It may be so, but it is certain that very often they are 
not. Look at Cattleya Hardyana, Calanthe Veitchii, Miltonia Bleuana, 
Dendrobium Ainsworthii and its varieties, and some of the Leeliocattleyas 
and Odontoglossums. They are certainly not less beautiful than their 
parents. Hybrids very often have a new kind of beauty, and some of them 
are more easily grown and more floriforous than the species from which 
they originate. We should never have witnessed the present marvellous 
development of hybridisation without very good and substantial reasons. 
Some hybrids are certainly less beautiful than their parents, but this 
largely arises from unsuitable unions. Plants which have strongly 
opposed characters should not as a rule be united, the result being generally 
unsatisfactory. A richly-coloured species crossed with an albino is apt to 
yield hybrids of undecided intermediate tints, which would justify the 
remark sometimes made that both parents have been spoilt. But the same 
parents might yield good results if crossed with plants possessing similar 
qualities. The object of hybridising should be to acquire new and 
desirable characters, or to emphasise existing ones, and everything depends 
upon a suitable selection of parents. There has been a good deal of 
indiscriminate crossing in the past, but this should be avoided. 
As regards albinos the evidence is rather conflicting. Cattleya 
intermedia alba crossed with C. Mossiz Wageneri yields true albinos, the 
batch of C. Dusseldorfii var. Undine being all white. In some cases 
crosses between albinos, or reputed albinos, have yielded coloured forms, 
but both albinos and coloured forms have occasionally resulted from the 
same cross. It has been suggested that in some such cases the parents were 
not true albinos, but it hardly applies to all, for there are albinos which 
come true from self-fertilised seed, yet if intercrossed the resulting hybrids 
revert to coloured forms. 
Mr. Beyrodt remarks that secondary hybrids, especially, have often 
disappointed him. It is not an uncommon experience, but there are many 
