82 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
ORCHID NOMENCLATURE. 
ANOTHER year (also century!) has gone, and yet this question remains 
where it was; ever present and ever passed by, and getting even more 
complex. The need of the Central Institution is greater than ever, and 
this week has given an additional proof of it. On Feburary 12th, 
Dendrobium xX Wiganianum (nobile x Hildebrandii) appears at the 
R. H.S., and is given an Award of Merit. On the 16th I get my Orchid 
Review, and on page 37 I meet my new friend as D. X Ellisii. Both 
names have gone out to the world at large, and in next month’s Orchid 
Review the report of the R. H. S. award will perforce be recorded. In 
this way the Orchid Review will innocently aid and abet what it always 
preaches against. This is a paradox that plainly shows the need of the 
Central Institution, to which the advent of a new hybrid could be at once 
reported and the name secured to one individual. 
I do not for amoment think much of this plant having two names almost 
simultaneously given, for some hybrid ‘‘Cyps.” (I will not write the other 
end of the word as I might put the wrong one) have many more than /wo. 
‘“ Argus,” in April, 1900 (O. R., p. 97), agreed “‘ to consider whether any 
practical steps can be taken to bring it about.” This “it ” was the registra- 
tion of new varieties, and it applies to hybrids in the same manner. oe 
We have not had any result from his promise, and I suppose he is, like 
me, waiting for support to try to do something to establish some means 
whereby this crying evil can be remedied. Perhaps if he and I met we 
might make a start together, and issue a circular, as Captain C. C. Hurst 
has lately done in regard to his ‘“‘ Orchid Stud Book.” 
The real obstacle in the way is that there is no Orchid Society pure and 
simple. The R. H. S. cannot take up one branch of Horticulture and 
specialise it as much as we Orchidists want, because all the other branches 
(and all the twigs too) would immediately clamour for their special position. 
Not that I consider they would all have equal claims upon it, but then I, of 
course, am only a specialist in Orchids. poe 
To establish the Orchid Society needs money to begin with, and there 
are only too many people who will quietly jog along as they now do when 
asked for a subscription, rather than do or give a little to help to eradicate 
what will become, in time, worse than “ confusion confounded.” 
If they could only see how much they would save in purchasing only 
“ registered ” hybrids, they might be persuaded to be an original member of 
what would become a most interesting and useful Society. 
Many people think that it would mean a secession of Orchid grower 
from the R. H. S., but I do not see that at all. There is ample room and 
need for both Societies to prosper and work together. The R. H. 5- has 
| 
= 
