314 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [OCTOBER, 1903- 
RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN THE HYBRIDISATION 
OF ORCHIDS. 
A PAPER by Capt. C. C. Hurst, F.L.S., bearing the above title, was read. 
at a meeting of the Botanical Section of the British Association, at 
Southport, on September roth last, of which a summary may be 
interesting. The lecturer pointed out that the first hybrid Orchid raised. 
by hand was Calanthe x Dominii, which flowered with Messrs. Veitch at 
Exeter, in 1856, out of C. Masuca by pollen of C. furcata. Since then, 
and especially during the last decade, the number of hybrid Orchids has 
increased remarkably, until at the present time there are on record more. 
than 1,300, each representing a distinct cross. Of these at least 230 are 
generic hybrids, while the individuals of each cross are innumerable. The 
great majority, too, are fertile, and comprise hybrids of the second, third, 
and fourth generations. One of the more advanced of these is. 
Paphiopedilum x Kubele, which contains five distinct species in_ its. 
pedigree. It is evident, therefore, that in many respects Orchids offer a 
wide field te the student of inheritance. 
In speaking of Intermediate Hybrids the case of Paphiopedilum x Hera 
and its varieties was used as an illustration, and as this question has already 
been exhaustively dealt with we must refer our readers to the two papers. 
and a series of thirty figures which appeared in earlier issues (supra, pp. 
71-74, figs. 16-18, and pp. 97-99). It is claimed that the results shown 
are a further confirmation of the Mendelian idea of the separation of 
hybrid characters. 
In “ Dominant Hybrids” another class of phenomena appeared. In 
certain distinct hybrids we find that one parent is always dominant in all 
characters, almost to the exclusion of the other. For example, 
Epiphronitis x Veitchii, raised by Messrs. Veitch in 1890 out of 
Sophronitis grandiflora by pollen of Epidendrum radicans, is in all its 
characters a pure Epidendrum; the only traces of the Sophronitis parent 
being the dwarfer habit, fewer larger and darker flowers, witha few slight 
modifications of the lip and crest. Indeed, did we not know that, 
Sophronitis was the other parent, it would have been impossible to have 
suggested it. In addition to the above, more than twenty distinct hybrids 
have been raised between various species of Epidendrum with reed-like 
stems, and various species of Epidendrum, Lelia, Cattleya, and Sophronitis. 
with pseudobulbs, comprising thousands of individuals, and all without 
exception have the reed-like stems and general characters of Epidendrum. 
Unfortunately these hybrids have so far proved infertile, their pollen 
being apparently defective and actually impotent. We cannot, there- 
fore, test their nature by further breeding, and it is impossible to say 
