ORCHID CONFERENCE. 



29 



Dominii, raised from C. masuca x C. furcata, will always be 

 regarded with interest, as being the first hybrid Orchid that 

 flowered. It flowered for the first time in October, 1856, on 

 which occasion the spike was shown by my father to Dr. Lindley, 

 who exclaimed, on seeing it, "Yon will drive the botanists mad,'' 

 an expression quite characteristic of the rigid systematists who 

 flourished prior to the publication of Darwin's " Fertilisation of 

 Orchids by Insect Agency." The first hybrid cattleya that flowered 

 was C. hybrida, a plant now lost, but which was soon followed by 

 the flowering of C. Brabantia. The first hybrid cypripedium to 

 flower was C. Harrisianum, which justly commemorates the name 

 of Dr. Hams, a gentleman who first suggested the hybridisation 

 of Orchids. Among other noteworthy acquisitions raised at 

 Exeter were Cattleya Dominiana, Lcclia Exoniensis, Calanthe 

 Veitchii, and Lalia Veitchii. The last-named flowered for the first 

 time at Chelsea. Dominy also raised some seedling vandas, but 

 they were afterwards lost. Seden's acquisitions are more 

 numerous, and many of them unquestionably prove that sub- 

 stantial progress is being made, in spite of the innumerable 

 difficulties that beset the raising of seedling Orchids. To any 

 one who has compared Cypripedium cardinale, C. Schrodera, and 

 C. Sedeni candididum, with the original C. Schlimii, this progress 

 is manifest enough. And so with C. ccnanthum superbum, 

 C. Leeanum superbum, and C. MorganuBi nor ought I to omit 

 mention of Lalia flammea, still unique in colour among Orchids, 

 Masdevallia Chelsoni, Calanthe Sedeni, also obtained by other 

 operators, and Dendrobium micans. 



The following details may prove to be of some interest. 

 Among cattleyas we find that all the members of the labiata 

 group and also the Brazilian species with two-leaved stems, as 

 C. intermedia, C. Aclandia, C. superba, &c, cross freely with each 

 other, and with the Brazilian laelias, which also cross freely with 

 each other. It is worthy of note, too, that those hybrids which 

 have a two-leaved cattleya for one parent and a one-leaved la?lia 

 or cattleya for the other, have some stems with one and others 

 with two leaves, and the flowering does not seem to be affected 

 thereby. [A plant with this peculiarity here shown.] But 

 neither the cattleyas nor the Brazilian la?lias will cross freely with 

 the Mexican Lalia albida, autumnalis, majalis, nd>escens (better 

 known in gardens as acuminata), &c. Numerous crosses have 

 been effected both ways, and capsules have been produced, but 



