Fepruary, 1908.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 35 
HYBRIDISING WITH STORED POLLEN. 
THE ORCHID REVIEW of 1903 contains an important series of articles on 
Orchid Hybridisation. On page 278 the difficulties are mentioned which 
are caused by the fact that very often two species which it may be desirable 
to cross do not flower together, and a means is indicated to overcome this 
difficulty by keeping the pollen in hermetically sealed tubes. On page 292 
Mrs. E. Thwaites took up the subject, and showed by a number of extracts 
from her record book that stored pollen keeps its vitality for a long time, 
even if kept in blue tissue paper instead of sealed tubes. 
This subject is of greater interest to the amateur Orchidist than to the 
professional. The latter with his hundreds and perhaps even thousands of 
plants of one species, will always have some that flower ahead of or behind 
their time. With the amateur the coincidence of the flowering of the two 
species which he wishes to combine will not be so frequent. The possibility 
of storing pollen removes this difficulty. 
The experiments of Mrs. Thwaites, interesting as they are, are, however, 
not conclusive. It is not enough to know that stored pollen causes the 
formation of a pod. It is not even enough that in four of the cases recorded 
seed was obtained which germinated. It would be very interesting to learn 
whether the proportion of fertile seed obtained in such fertilisations was 
the usual one, and, above all, whether the seedlings obtained from such seed 
proved healthy and vigorous in the long run. 
I have it on the authority of a well-known French professional grower 
of Orchid hybrids, that fertilisations with stored pollen prove worthless 
according to his experience, that very little fertile seed is obtained from 
them, and that the seedlings raised from it are sickly and never produce 
good plants. I should like to know whether these statements are really the 
result of unbiassed experience, or whether perhaps they are partly founded 
on prejudice. Unfortunately it would take years to answer "this question by 
experiment. Perhaps Mrs. Thwaites and other enthusiastic hybridists have 
solyed the problem already, and would be kind enough to let us profit from 
their experience by publishing their opinion and a few notes from their 
record books. 
It would also be interesting to learn something of the behaviour of 
Papbiopedilum pollen on keeping. We all know how very different this 
pollen and the manner of its application to the stigma is from that of all 
other Orchids. The ordinary Orchid forms coherent masses of considerable 
hardness. These masses gradually disintegrate if brought into contact 
with the fluid which exudes from the stigma. The pollen of almost all 
Cypripedilinz forms a viscid substance which has the nature of an oint- 
ment, whilst on the other hand their stigmata exude no fluid. 
