﻿August, 1904.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 227 



was given to indicate that in the Committee's opinion the plant on which 

 at was bestowed was " not worthy of commendation for cultural or 



decorative purposes "—truly a rather dubious honour. 



Seedling Odontoglossums are very much to the front just now, for we 

 have not only the photographs of four striking forms which were exhibited 

 at the recent Temple Show, at page 201, and which will be useful for 

 reference later on, but also a detailed account of the remarkable series of 

 seedlings in the collection of De Barri Crawshay, Esq. It is interesting to 

 have such full particulars of the methods employed, and it should enable 

 others to follow up the work with greater certainty of success. We seem 

 to have arrived at the eve of a great development. 



What is a species ? The question is again raised by a rather interesting 

 article which has just reached me. From it I learn that a plant has been 

 discovered which exhibits " the long sought property of producing each year 

 a number of new species." And they appear to be numerous, too, for a 

 little later on it is said that the plant "produces each year a large number 

 of new species." This remarkable plant is CEnothera Lamarckiana, and I 

 am a little relieved to find that it is not an Orchid. But if ordinary plants 

 are beginning to behave like this, what may we not expect from Orchids ? 

 Indeed, from the general line of argument I have a suspicion that they may 

 already exist, and a little search may yield some interesting discoveries. At 

 all events the following is suggestive : — 



" The progress of modern horticulture is largely due to the practical 

 cultivator taking advantage of the natural tendency to variation that 

 exists in all plants. He induces plants to vary from the type, and later 

 endeavours to ' fix ' it in the case of a plant propagated by seed, or he 

 perpetuates the variation by the vegetation process of grafting. Thus he 

 makes new varieties. We talk of a ' species.' What do we mean ? Only 

 that the plant is like some others. And we place limitations upon it by a 

 certain circumscribed range of variation. These smaller, inconstant varia- 

 tions we accept as normal; an unusual variation or 'sport' always calls 

 our attention. Until recently the general belief has been that new species 

 were formed by successive small variations from the mean, until, so to speak, 

 the balance was overtopped and a new centre was established. And 

 this may be a true hypothesis in some cases. The 4 mutation ' 

 theory of De Vries accounts for new species by sudden jumps ; and, 

 following up this line of thought, De Vries has actually been successful 

 in seeing new species originate from the old ones. But further than that, 

 it is his belief that this jumping tendency is natural manifestation and recurs 

 periodically." 



