JANUARY, Ig09.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 3 
example of the wide diversity of character often shown by secondary 
hybrids (even out of the same capsule), which seem to defy all attempts to 
name them satisfactorily, but generally speaking there has been a careless 
and even reckless multiplication of synonymy. But hybrids with imperfect 
- or contradictory records have proved still more difficult. It was impossible 
to ascertain whether they should be regarded as distinct or as forms of 
something else, and many such have had to be omitted because of the 
_ sheer impossibility of knowing where to put them. The records or the 
; plants may exist somewhere, and if so we hope that the absence of the 
- names will be detected, and that such information will be forthcoming as 
will serve to clear up their history. A similar difficulty may have led to 
some of them being inserted in the wrong place, and if so we hope the 
errors will be pointed out. The synonyms are arranged as far as possible 
_ chronologically, which shows the history of any given hybrid better than an 
alphabetical arrangement.” 
There are 120 figures in half-tone, a long addenda down to the end of 
1907, and a complete Index of Synonyms. A paragraph relating to 
omissions may be summarised by saying that a certain: number of hybrids 
whose parentage could not be ascertained have been omitted until the 
' necessary information is forthcoming, and this should afford an opportunity 
for the ingenuity of our readers, which we hope they will not lose sight of. 
The next paragraph is of general interest. 
‘“* SECONDARY AND MORE COMPLEX HyBriIDs.—A great deal of difficulty 
has been experienced in dealing with secondary hybrids and those of more 
| complex parentage. Although we have treated them the same as primary 
hybrids it is felt that the plan is not satisfactory. Primary hybrids usually 
combine the characters of their parents in sucha way that they can easily 
be recognised, and the variations assumed by different individuals from the 
same seed pod or the same cross are seldom great enough to prevent 
' them from being recognised, and had the matter gone no further 
most of the difficulties could have been got over with very little trouble. 
_ But we now have hybrids of almost every degree of complexity—primary 
_ hybrids recrossed with their own parents, or crossed with other species or 
4 hybrids; hybrids derived from two species in which the parents are 
_ combined in equal and in unequal proportions; hybrids derived from three 
_ species, from four, and one even from five species; and while some of these 
- complex hybrids vary enormously between themselves they also in some 
cases resemble others that are known to have been derived from different 
crosses. In short there are hybrids whose parentage cannot be fixed with 
_ any degree of certainty by an analysis of their characters, because of the 
_ amount of reversion that has taken place. Then there is that curious 
complication that certain crosses which from their parentage appear to be 
