THE ORCHID REVIEW. 37 
of his retirement from the service of Messrs. Veitch, the Council of the 
Royal Horticultural Society presented him with their large Gold Flora 
Medal for his successful labours as a raiser of hybrid Orchids, Nepenthes, 
and other plants. 
The first successful follower of Mr. Dominy appears to have been Mr. 
Cross, gardener to Lady Ashburton, of Melchet Court, Hampshire, who 
obtained Cypripedium x Ashburtonie by crossing C. barbatum with the 
pollen of C. insigne. This hybrid, which is quite intermediate in character, 
flowered for the first time in 1871, when it was described by Reichenbach. 
The same raiser added Cypripedium x Crossianum, in 1873. Its parents 
were C. insigne and C. venustum, the former being the seed parent. Both it 
and the preceding were distributed by Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea. 
Mr. Seden next appeared upon the scene, having succeeded Mr. Dominy 
in the work at the Royal Exotic Nursery. His first hybrid was a remark- 
able and very handsome one. It was obtained by crossing Selenipedium 
longifolium with the pollen of S. Schlimii, and vice versd, both crosses 
flowering for the first time in 1873, and proving absolutely identical. This 
hybrid was a great horticultural acquisition, and in some respects also a 
surprise. Neither of the parents can be placed in the first rank as decora- 
tive plants. One is a free grower, with large flowers of little beauty, the 
other a “ miffy ” grower with small but brightly coloured flowers, but the 
good qualities of both parents were fortunately combined in the offspring. 
A plant of the most robust constitution, remarkably floriferous, and with 
well-shaped flowers of a most pleasing shade of pink, this hybrid was soon 
utilised for further experiments, with the result that our gardens have been 
enriched by a race of hybrids of the greatest possible value from a decora- 
tive standpoint. 
Another of Mr. Seden’s hybrids which flowered during 1873 also 
established a record, being the first of the series of secondary hybrids— 
i... hybrids in which one or both parents is itself of hybrid origin. It was 
described under the name of Cattleya x fausta, and said to be ‘‘ just inter- 
mediate between C. Loddigesii, as the 9, or seed parent, and C. x exoni- 
ensis, as the 2, or pollen parent.” Two forms were described at the outset— 
the typical form, with rosy-lilac sepals and petals and a paler lip, and the 
variety radicans, distinguished by the presence of a number of dark purplish 
veins and streaks on the anterior part of the lip. Thus it afforded an 
indication of what has since been repeatedly confirmed, namely, that 
Secondary hybrids are especially variable, plants raised from the same seed- 
pod often exhibiting great dissimilarity between themselves. 
Early in 1874 Dendrobium x Ainsworthii flowered for the first time, 
being the work of a new operator. It was raised in the collection of Dr. 
Ainsworth, of Lower Broughton, near Manchester, by Mr. Mitchell, between 
D. aureum and D. nobile, the former being the seed-parent. It was 
