ae 
THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
VOlaiteV tied MARCH, 1909. [No. 195. 
DIES ORCHIDIANI. 
THE publication of the Orchid Stud-Book is an event in the annals of 
Orchidology. We have at last something like a guide to the vast literature 
of the subject, and whether one wants to know the history of any particular 
hybrid, or whether a certain cross has already, flowered, the information 
can be turned up at once. The bringing together of all the different forms. 
of the same hybrid, whatever the names under which they were recorded, 
with the list of published figures, is. also very useful, because it gives an 
idea of the relative importance of the different hybrids that have been 
raised. The synonymy is in some cases extensive, as may be gathered: 
from the statement on page iv. of the Preface that ‘the well-known hybrid 
between Cattleya Mossiz and Lelia purpurata (Lzliocattleya x Canham- 
iana) has been recorded under nineteen different names, while Paphio- 
pedilum xX aureum has nearly forty synonyms,” and after this the authors 
may be forgiven for the remark that “‘ generally speaking there has been a 
careless and even reckless multiplication of synonymy.” The introductory 
chapters relating to the History of Orchid Hybridisation, the Specific 
Composition of Hybrids, Generic Hybrids, the Literature of Orchid 
Hybrids, and on Hybridising and raising Orchids from seed, with the 
numerous illustrations, serve to fill an Geaoaga volume, and form quite a 
text-book on the subject. 
And there is another important phase of the subject. The authors aim 
at making it a standard of nomenclature, and if they can succeed in this. 
they will have done much to remedy the confusion which I and others have 
so often deplored, and which has been partly due to the absence of such a 
text-book as the one under notice. Now that the principle. of a common 
specific name for the hybrids derived from forms of the same species has 
been adopted, one fertile source of confusion should vanish, and a common 
agreement that the said name should conform to the principles of binomial 
nomenclature would abolish another, while the question of synonymy pure 
and simple would settle itself if the records could be kept up to date, and 
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