THE ORCHID REVIEW. 269 
This particular P. barbatum flower had no upper sepal, and no lateral 
petals, one of the lateral petals having changed its position so as to be 
opposite to the labellum. The lower sepal was normal, and the labellum 
equally so; the staminode was also replaced by a fertile stamen, bearing 
good pollen, but the ovary, which one would naturally expect to find 
changed in some way, was normal, even to its placentation. 
Whatever the significance of such anomalies, I am sure interesting 
experiments could be carried out by cross-fertilisation, if the pollen of the 
normally infertile stamen were used, not with the intention of obtaining a 
new monster of horticultural value, but something that might throw light 
on ancestral conditions in a way heretofore unheard of. 
North Easton, Mass. OAKES AMES. 
HYBRID ORCHIDS. 
THE following note was written in 1889 by Mr. W. Smythe, Basing Park, 
Alton (Gard. Chron., 1889, v., p. 341), and is interesting in connection with 
recent records. Can anyone say if any of the plants mentioned are now 
in existence ? 
‘“Some hybrids of Phaius grandifolius x Calanthe X Veitchii have 
been raised here. The seed, which was very good as regarded vitality, 
grew quickly on being sown. P. grandifolius, which was the seed parent, 
was fertilised on January 1, 1888, and the seed capsule was ripe on June I, 
and was at once sown. A nice lot of young plants came up about the end 
of September, and some of the plants are now 1} inches high, and look 
promising. The foliage is very much more like that of Calanthe X Veitchii 
than of Phaius grandifolius. I may mention that the seed was sown on the 
soil in which the plant of Phaius was growing; and before sowing the seed 
the soil was loosened on the surface, and the old plant placed on a shelf in 
the stove, where the treatment adopted was that usual with Phaius. I 
think that this is by far the easiest and most certain way to raise any 
seedling Orchids, and I feel quite sure that seeds of many of our best 
Orchids, if they can be obtained, would come up well, and grow much 
better thus raised than if they were specially treated. I have proved that 
Odontoglossums and Cypripediums will succeed in this way. I have 
several other Orchids that have seed capsules upon them that will soon 
be ripe, and these seeds it is my intention to treat in this way. Moreover, 
I have Oncidium fertilised with Odontoglossum, the capsules being now 
ripe; and likewise Zygopetalum Mackayi and Calanthe vestita fertilised 
with Phaius grandifolius.” 
