36 | THE ORCHID REVIEW. [ FEBRUARY, 1912. 
many plants in different places in Europe treated in this way, and I have 
treated a few dozen plants after this method myself, with the loss of a good 
many plants, but without seeing flowers. I was therefore almost certain 
that this was not the correct treatment. In taking the matter up seriously, 
I found that where the shy-flowering type of C. gigas grows it is mostly 
shady, therefore moist, and it is certain that in the moisture the leaves from 
the trees decay quickly, nourishing the plants more than necessary. This 
may have been the condition for thousands of years, and I believe it is why 
we have the shy-flowering type. 
ROBERT BLOSSFELD, 
Potsdam. Manager to C. F. Karthaus. 
FERTILISATION AND SECONDARY HYBRIDS. 
TE remarkable variation so frequently seen among secondary hybrids is 
now thoroughly familiar to hybridists, but new cases are constantly causing 
surprise, especially to beginners and those who purchase a few unflowered 
seedlings. A correspondent asks us to describe exactly what takes place in 
hybridising, as it might help to explain some of the things which at present 
appear incredible, and as the old question of the “false” hybrids of 
Zygopetalum Mackayi has cropped up again (p. 40) we may attempt to kill 
two birds with one stone and begin at the very beginning. . 
An Orchid flower at the moment of expansion is an incomplete organism. 
If the ovary be then cut across the ovules will be found to be in a 
rudimentary state, consisting merely of minute papilla projecting from the 
surface of the placentas, and the remarkable thing is that unless the flower 
is pollinated they remain in this condition until the flower withers and falls 
away, sometimes weeks after it first opened. If the ovary of most ordinary 
plants be opened at the same period the ovules will be found fully developed, 
and capable of being fertilised immediately. 
In the rudimentary state that the ovules are in when an Orchid flower 
expands they are absolutely incapable of fertilisation. They must first 
grow into the mature condition, and for this some stimulus is necessary. It 
is supplied by the application of suitable pollen to the stigmas, and the 
subsequent growth of the pollen tubes. The effect of pollination is quickly 
visible. In a few hours the floral segments become flaccid, and show signs 
of withering, and shortly afterwards the column begins to thicken and its 
wings to close in on the stigma. The pollinia now begin to disintegrate 
forming with the secretion from the stigma a gelatinous mass, that fills up 
the stigmatic cavity. Microscopic examination shows that the polliuia are 
breaking up into the compound four-celled granules characteristic of the 
Order, and from these the four pollen tubes are already protrubing. They 
then elongate and push their way down the loose tissue of the style in 
