202 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
NOTES ON SOME CURIOSITIES OF ORCHID BREEDING. 
THE last number of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society contains 
a most interesting paper bearing the above title, by Mr. C. C. Hurst. A 
brief summary was given at page 326 of our last volume, and we now give 
the following additional particulars for the benefit of those who may not 
be able to read the paper in the original. 
The special object of the paper was described by Mr. Hurst as being to 
bring together in a concise form some of the curiosities and apparent 
anomalies which have come to light during the rapid progress which has 
been made during recent years in Orchid hybridisation, and to view them 
in the light of recent researches. Commencing with normal forms, the 
author remarks that primary hybrids are generally intermediate between 
their parents, as is evident by the researches of Macfarlane on Cypri- 
pedium X Leeanum, Masdevallia x Chelsoni, and others, even down to 
their minute structure. He then alludes to the curiously long interval 
which elapses between pollination and the fertilisation of the ovules, 
_ ranging from eight or nine up to 120 days in various Orchids, though the 
ultimate process seems to be much the same as in other flowering plants. 
This is essentially the union of the contents of the pollen cell of the 
father with the egg cell of the mother, which latter then develops into 
the living embryo, and later germinates into the future plant. When the 
contents of these two uniting cells are derived from different species, the 
resulting embryo is a hybrid combining the characters of the two parent 
species, which explains the intermediate character. 
Among the curiosities enumerated are several alleged crosses, in which 
the mother species is alone reproduced, and the question arises, are they 
true hybrids? Probably not, for they must have originated by self-fertilisa- 
tion, or by parthenogenesis—without the aid of pollen at all, of which 
latter phenomenon a curious instance was discovered by Dr. Treub, the 
embryos developing in the ovary of Liparis latifolia as the result of the 
presence of some insect larva, which seemed to feed on the juices secreted 
within the ovarian cavity without injuring the ovules. Some of the 
examples cited are apparently inexplicable, and it is suggested that the 
experiments should be repeated, and the results carefully recorded. 
The question of sterility is discussed, examples of species which ap- 
parently refuse to intercross being given, but occasional successes show 
that negative results cannot be accepted as conclusive, some one ultimately 
succeeding where others have repeatedly failed. Then comes some evidence 
on the question of the influence of foreign pollen on the period of ripening 
of the seeds, the balance of evidence being that some such influence is 
exerted, though to what extent is not clear. 
