34 



EEPORT ON THE 



last named, and these were unfortunately lost within a few months 

 after the germination of the seed. I may here note that the late 

 Mr. Bentham, when working up the Orchidese for the " Genera 

 Plantarum " must, I think, have been misinformed when he 

 states under " Miltonia vexillarium," page 563, that " fide hortu- 

 lanorum facile cum Odontoglossis variis nec cum Miltoniis genuis 

 proles hybridas gignunt." Our experience is the very opposite 

 of this. Vexillarium crosses readily with the flat-lipped 

 miltonias, as spectabilis, although thus far we have failed 

 to raise any progeny from these crosses, but not with the 

 true odontoglots ; often as it has been attempted, no capsules are 

 produced. Thus, while our experience in muling among 

 odontoglots goes far to disprove the statement I have just quoted, 

 it at the same time confirms unmistakeably Mr. Bentham's view 

 as to the proper generic place of vexillarium, and its allies Roezlii, 

 phalanopsis and Warscewiczii. 



I have already taken up so much of your time that I must 

 forbear entering into details of the crossings, and results of 

 them, among other genera, and into the scientific aspects of 

 hybridisation it is not my province to lead you. Nevertheless, 

 I may be permitted to refer to a few facts that have come under 

 our observation that have a practical bearing as well as a 

 scientific one. 



It will be gathered from what I have already said that our 

 hybridising operations have extended over a rather wide field ; 

 that they have not been confined to the crossing of different 

 species of the same genus, but hundreds of experiments have 

 been made between species of diferent genera. The question 

 thence naturally arises : How will these bigeneric crosses affect 

 the stability of the genera as at present circumscribed ? And, 

 what changes of nomenclature will be necessary to place the 

 Orchideae on an intelligible basis as regards names ? Glancing 

 over the whole range of our operations, and the results obtained 

 from them, I may safely reply that thus far the stability of the 

 genera is scarcely affected, and the changes in nomenclature 

 need be very few indeed. Leaving the progeny derived from 

 species of cattleya x laelia out of consideration, the last-named 

 genus being confessedly an artificial one, only two bigeneric 

 hybrids have yet flowered ; these I have mentioned above, 

 Phaius irrocatus, and P. irrocatus purpureas. Many years ago 



