354 THE ORCHID REVIEW. { DECEMBER, IgIo. 
illustrate our meaning, and the system has been carried out with praise- 
worthy uniformity, as it certainly ought to be, at least in the case of all 
primary hybrids. In this connection we note a generous recognition of our 
own work which we need not mention further. The author, artist, and 
publishers must be congratulated on the production of a very handsome 
volume. 
Orchids. By James O’Brien, V.M.H., pp. 113, with eight coloured 
plates. London: J. C. & E. C. Jack, 16, Henrietta Street, W.C., and 
Edinburgh. 
This is a volume of the ‘‘ Present Day Gardening” series, edited by R. 
Hooper Pearson, Managing Editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle, and is 
divided into 21 chapters, with an Introduction, and includes Rise and 
Progress of Orchid Culture, Structure of Orchid flowers, Structure of the 
Orchid House, Potting and basketing process, Propagation by Division, 
Watering Epiphytal Orchids, Manure for Orchids, Resting Orchids, 
Diseases and Insect Pests, Orchids for the Conservatory, Orchids as Cut 
Flowers, Treatment of Imported Orchids, Hybridising and raising seedling 
Orchids, Enumeration of the Principal Genera and Species in Cultivation, 
and Orchid Hybrids, with an Index. 
It may be regarded as an introduction to Orchid culture, and is full of 
sound, useful information, though the attempt to compress so much into 
a small compass (in conformity with the rest of the series) has led to 
great brevity in the enumeration of cultivated Orchids. No department 
of present-day gardening, the Editor remarks, exhibits such wonderful 
progress as is shown in the Orchid gardens and nurseries that are to be 
found in every portion of these Isles, and it is hoped that the present 
- volume will induce thousands to commence the culture of the cooler 
species. 
The coloured plates represent Cypripedium insigne Sanderz, Miltonia 
vexillaria, Dendrobium Wardianum, Cattleya Trianez var. Hydra, Brasso- 
cattleya Digbyano-Mossie, Cymbidium Lowio-eburneum, Oncidium 
Marshaliianum, and Odontoglossum crispum. All are fine specimens, 
photographed in the collection of Lt.-Col. Sir George L. Holford. 
DO HYBRID PLANTS VARY? 
_THIs question is raised in a somewhat unfamiliar form in a recent issue of 
_ the Field (Oct. 2gth, p. 848). _ Briefly, it is this, Do hybrids vary from year 
to year? The case is put thus :— 
“Some years ago Sir John Edwards Moss, writing to the Orchid Review, 
‘stated that two hybrid Orchids in his collection, namely, Brassocattleya 
‘Orpheus and Lzliocattleya Aphrodite, had behaved in an extraordinary way, 
the colours of the flowers and the form of the pseudobulbs varying from 
