March, 1913.] _ THE ORCHID REVIEW. 77 
margins of the petals and tips of the sepals are lilac mauve in colour, and 
Mr. Cookson remarked in his letter that it was curious that another cross, 
with the blotched O. crispum Graireanum as the pollen parent, should give 
very much smaller pure scarlet-flowers, without spotting or blotching. 
There are now several fine pure scarlet forms of O. Bradshawiz in 
existence, and the question has been submitted to us as to how far they can 
‘be utilised in breeding the much-desired scarlet crispum, for the secondary 
hybrids of Odontioda Vuylstekee have shown a great loss of the scarlet 
colour. Major Hurst has stated that the common practice of mating a 
primary hybrid back to one of its parents cannot be expected to succeed, 
because such a mating implies the presence of a “‘ single dose” only of one 
of the two characters concerned, and he suggests that a simple solution of 
the problem would be to mate two primary hybrids together that will give 
a “double dose” of each of the two characters that the Orchid breeder 
wishes to combine—in this case the scarlet colour of the Cochlioda with 
the larger size of the Odontoglossum—and he says it is obvious that this 
can be done simply by mating two of the F1 hybrids together, and, if 
the case is a simple one, the desired result should be reached in F2, on the 
average in one plant out of every sixteen raised. 
This means, if we understand it aright, that if two primary hybrids were 
mated together, each of which contained a ‘‘ double dose” of the size of one 
original parent and the colour of the other, these characters would break up 
and recombine, and among the seedlings there would be, on. an average, one 
in sixteen combining the size of one original grandparent with the colour of 
the other, hence the desired ‘‘Scarlet crispum.” But no such primary 
hybrids exist, for there is. no species with large scarlet. flowers to begin with, 
and such primary hybrids as are available only contain half a “‘ dose” of 
the désired characters, the other half consisting of what the breeder is 
trying to eliminate. Further, there is no evidence of such complete 
Separation of character as would justify the hypothesis. Segregation of 
previously combined characters has certainly been observed among hybrids, 
but blending of diverse characters is a far more familiar feature. 
It would be a very. simple matter to make the experiment of crossing 
two primary hybrids together, to see whether there is such a “‘royal road 
success. Indeed we believe that such crosses have already been made, and 
the result is now awaited with interest. In other groups such crosses are 
common, but we cannot recall one giving results parallel to the above 
hypothetical case. 
But to return. to the steétion of how far the pure scarlet forms of 
Odontioda Bradshawiz can best be used in the production of a ‘‘ Scarlet 
crispum.” Recrossing with the Cochlioda is out of the question, for that 
would still further reduce the size of the flowers, and in recrossing with 
