104 THE ORCHID REVIEW. {APRIL, Ig12. 
seeing the enormous progress that has been made, and among the most 
diverse groups. Among Orchids, which were once considered to be beyond 
the powers of the hybridist, but now constitute one of his favourite groups, 
we may mention Odontoglossum, Cypripedium, Calanthe, and Cattleya as 
illustrations. Hybridisation not only gives rise directly to new and highly 
decorative forms, but it also gives a stimulus to variation, and thus provides 
the materials on which selection can work. Some garden plants have been 
improved without hybridisation, but in such cases the first steps have 
usually been extremely slow, owing to the slight tendency to vary, but 
when this fixity of character has been broken by a few judicious crosses the 
rate of progress has been enormously accelerated. This tendency to vary 
is one of the most marked features of hybrids, so much so that when some 
fine hybrid has been obtained it usually becomes necessary to increase and 
Fig. 14. CyPRIPEDIUM SUTTONI®. 
Fig. 15. C. NIVEUM. 
Fig. 16. C. CHAMBERLAINIANUM. 
perpetuate it by vegetative process. This, however, is impossible with 
annuals, and a process of selection has to be carried on, 
generations, before its characters become fixed. 
The lecture was illustrated by plants in flower of Cypripedium Suttoniz 
and its two parents, C. niveum and C. Chamberlainianum (figured above), 
by drawings of some of the Orchids mentioned, and by specimens of 
numerous ordinary garden plants and their parents. Illustrations drawn 
from the latter have been omitted from these notes. The lecture was 
followed by an interesting discussion, in which many phases of hybridisa- 
tion and its bearing on the evolution of garden plants were touched upon. 
often for many 
