134 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
the latter being a cross of “ Leechianum” with “ nobile nobilus,” and the 
former of “ Ainsworthii ” with the same pollen parent. 
Is it likely that amateurs and ordinary dealers will observe any rule or 
reason whatever as long as the Orchid Committee permits such gross 
inconsistencies ? 
If possible the latitude allowed to what are called “varieties” is even 
worse than the loose treatment of hybrids. Every nurscryman and every 
amateur is permitted at his own sweet will and pleasure to affix a distinctive 
name to any plant that strikes his fancy, or appears to vary in any degree 
from others in the same batch. As there is no rule and no authority, so 
there is no limit to the abuse of this practice. 
The names thus given are frequently the same as those that have been 
already taken for other varieties. T hey are altogether illusory and 
unscientific; and their constantly growing number is destroying the value 
and meaning of all specific names. ; 
I believe that in the long run everyone would benefit if some authentic 
quality attached to every distinctive name, and if a buyer could be certain 
that in purchasing a “ magnifica,” or “ grandiflora,” or “ gloriosa,” he was 
really getting a plant of definite character. 
As it is, all confidence in these fancy descriptions is being rapidly lost, 
and prudent collectors have ceased to buy varieties unless they can seé 
them in flower. 
Under these circumstances, I am tempted to make a suggestion for the — 
consideration of the Royal Horticultural Society and in the interest of all 
who take an interest in Orchid cultivation. 
It is that the Orchid Committce should establish a ‘Hall Mark” for 
valuable Orchids, which would speedily be recognised by all cultivators, and 
which would be insisted on by buyers as a security against fraud of 
exaggeration. 
All that would be necessary is that the Committee should prepare @ 
form of label (bearing some distinctive mark, such as the seal of the Society 
—ifit has one—or the letters R.H.S.), which could be filled up as required 
with the name of the plant to which it is attached. : 
This label, when filled up, should be granted by the Committee oC 
payment of a small fee—say, of half-a-crown—to any plant exhibited at one 
of the Shows, and named by the Committee according to its rules. were 
tules should lay down the general conditions on which specific names He 
be allowed by the Committee; and I hope they would strictly preclude t 
grant of such names to any variety which did not differ most distinctly from 
the type, and to any hybrid from a cross already named. ald 
The result of an arrangement of this kind would be that no buy S ” eo 
pay high prices for a hybrid or variety which had not the Society 
