58 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [FEBRUARY, 1908. 
ALBINISM AND MENDEL’S “LAWS” OF INHERITANCE. 
SoME curious facts were brought before the Scientific Committee of the 
R.H.S. on November 26th last by Mr. H. J. Chapman, gardener to 
Norman C. Cookson, Esq., Oakwood, Wylam-on-Tyne, which have some 
bearing on the Mendelian “‘ Laws” of Inheritance. I have several times 
been urged to summarise the Mendelian hypothesis from an Orchidological 
standpoint, and the undermentioned facts may serve as the text for a few 
remarks. 
At the meeting in question Mr. Chapman showed “the result of a cross 
between Cypripedium insigne Sandere and C. callosum Sandere having 
coloured flowers.” Both parents are albinos, and are known to breed true 
from seed when self-fertilised; yet when crossed together the resulting 
hybrids are coloured, much the same as when the ordinary coloured types 
of the species are used. The remark applies to over one hundred plants 
which have now flowered, and it should be added that the cross was made 
both ways with the same result. He also showed a coloured flower, the 
result of crossing C. callosum Sandere and C. bellatulum album. Of this 
cross—again from albino parents—about twenty-five plants had flowered, 
and all were coloured. 
Here we have two distinct combinations between C. callosum Sandere 
and another albino parent, both of them showing reversion to coloured 
forms. But when C. callosum Sandere was intescrossed with C. Law- 
renceanum Hyeanum—another albino, which reproduces itself true from 
seed when self-fertilised—the resulting hybrid was a true albino, now known 
under the name of C. X Maudie. Can any explanation be offered of such 
erratic behaviour ? 
Albinism has been claimed as a Mendelian character, but the above 
evidence requires a different interpretation. The Mendelian hypothesis, as 
I understand it, assumes that the definite characters or qualities of an 
organism are inherited through the possession of certain gemmules of 
character-bearers, which are concerned in the act of reproduction, and by 
which the specific characters and qualities are handed on unchanged to the 
new generation—hence the term “ unit-characters.” They have even beet 
compared with atoms in chemistry. Moreover the way these ‘‘units " ate 
arranged in the new generation is said to be a mere matter of chance, 
something governed by the law of averages, like shaking up counters in a 
bag and drawing them out blind-folded. 
No one has yet been able to define a unit character, nor yet to explain 
how they originate, but their existence is assumed, and attempts have been 
made to define their properties, as tallness and dwarfness, greenness and 
yellowness, &c., these opposite characters being linked together in what 
