REPORT ON THE ORCHID CONFERENCE. 



47 



if it were necessary to do so, what he has said about the 

 exceeding difficulty there is in getting fertile seed. Mr. Darwin, 

 in his book on the " Fertilization of Orchids," mentions 

 that, having made a microscopical examination of the 

 seed pods sent to him, he often found that in an entire pod there 

 was not one fertile seed ; but, on the other hand, every now and 

 then, for some reasons which at present it is impossible to 

 understand, seed pods do produce a vast number of fertile seeds, 

 and I, myself, have before now from a cross between cypripedia 

 produced so large a number of plants that I have been constrained 

 to throw a number away. With regard to dendrobia, too, I have 

 had pods which have produced a very large number of plants. I 

 have also had seed from odontoglots which has certainly 

 germinated, but it only arrived at a size which was scarcely 

 distinguishable without the aid of a microscope, and very 

 speedily died. So far as the very small experience I possess 

 as a hybridizer goes, I should say it is far more difficult to raise 

 the seedlings of some hybrid crossings than it is to raise very 

 delicate children. Those errors I referred to in the few opening 

 remarks I made, of diet and treatment, which I am afraid 

 all our knowledge has not enabled us to avoid with regard 

 to children, the very limited experience we have got with 

 regard to the progeny of Orchids does not enable us 

 to avoid in their treatment. A very singular circumstance is 

 mentioned by Mr. Fitzgerald in his book on " Australian Orchids," 

 which shows the extreme difficulty with which they are 

 fertilized. He mentions a magnificent specimen of the Dendrobium 

 speciosum, the Brisbane Lily, and says that there were no 

 fewer than 40,000 flowers open at the same time on that plant ; 

 but though the plant was growing in the open air and was open 

 to the visits of insects, only one flower produced a seed pod. 



There was one circumstance I omitted to refer to in my 

 opening remarks, which I wish to mention now in con- 

 nection with Mr. Veitch's name, and which is very appropriate 

 in that connection. The Veitch Memorial Medal Committee 

 were so kind as to place at the disposal of the Conference 

 Committee three medals. The Conference Committee were 

 anxious to award these medals in the directions which 

 they thought most appropriate. On previous occasions these 

 medals have been awarded for very remarkable instances 

 of cultivation in Orchids, but we thought we might properly 



