APRIL, 1912.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 101 
complete that the offspring entirely resemble the seed parent, as in the 
well-known case of Zygopetalum Mackayi when crossed with various 
genera, the cause of which is not understood, though there is at least the 
presumption that hybridisation proper may not have taken place, but that 
the ovules have developed parthenogenetically. In others, however, the 
resemblance is to the pollen parent, as in Epiphronitis Veitchii (Sophronitis 
grandiflora x Epfidendrum radicans), which is almost identical with a 
dwarf Epidendrum in character, yet cannot be obtained from the reverse 
cross. As regards colour hybrids are often intermediate, but in some cases 
a mixture of the colours of the two parents is seen. A hybrid may be 
termed a mosaic in which every character of the two parents is represented 
in some form or another. Mixed characters are often found in hybrids 
where the parents have distinct kinds of hairs or other surface appendages, 
the two kinds often being found side by side in the hybrid. 
There are hybrids of almost every degree of complexity. Primary 
hybrids are those directly obtained by crossing distinct species, and these 
are generally pretty uniform in character. Secondary, and more complex 
hybrids, on the contrary, even from the same capsule, often show a very 
wide range of variation. The cause of this can be traced to the fundament- 
ally different nature of the reproductive cells in the two cases. In the case 
of species the reproductive cells—pollen and ovules—are uniform in 
character, but in that of hybrids the case is very different. Dissociation, 
through incompatibility of the original specific elements, has already taken 
place, the result being that the reproductive cells are not uniform in 
character, but represent the original specific elements in varying propor- 
tions, and thus the offspring of secondary crosses often shows the widest 
possible range of variation. This was remarked by Mr. Seden in the case 
of Leliocattleya fausta, the first secondary hybrid Orchid raised, when he 
told the late Mr. John Day that some of the seedlings most resembled their 
parents and some their grandparents. 
When hybrids are fertile, as is very often the case among plants, they 
can be further intercrossed, and in this way there are hybrids in existence 
derived from three, four, five, and even six species, and the difficulty of 
identifying some of them can easily be imagined. In fact these complex 
hybrids often show a considerable amount of reversion, and if a hybrid, AB, 
is crossed with a third species, C, one may expect to find among the off- 
spring forms approaching the hybrids AC and BC, owing to dissociation of 
the characters of the hybrid AB before uniting with C. Such plants are 
very difficult to identify when they occur wild, as was illustrated among 
forms of the remarkable Cypripedium aureum, and the fact shows the 
importance of keeping careful records, for it is not always possible to 
identify a hybrid from external appearance and in the absence of its history. 
