THE ORCHID WORLD. 
more experience with Cypripediums than I 
some who tell me that it matters little what 
the varieties are that are used m crossing — 
that a fine thing may make its appearance out 
of a batch of seedlings where it would be 
least expected, while the cross from which 
great things might reasonably be expected 
yields mostly rubbish. But I accept this with 
some diffidence, and would explain this " con- 
trariness " in badly thought out crossing, 
although there is no escaping the fact that the 
further one gets into hybriclity the less sure 
one is of the result, and where many species 
are concerned in the ancestry of a batch of 
seedlings the less uniformity is to be ex- 
pected among them. On the other hand, 
it would be a fair argument to suppose that 
if all the species used in making the primary 
hybrids w^ere selected ones, and selected 
because of some special features that it was 
desired to emphasise, the crossing of two of 
the best hybrids thus obtained would be 
making progress. If all the species contained 
in the hybrid compound were good beyond 
doubt, and so selected that not one could 
reasonably act in a neutralising way on the 
others, one will have done all that is humanly 
possible to evolve something new and better 
in Cypripedium hybrids. One may put too 
much belief in the apparent, and because a 
fine thing or two have appeared in a dis- 
carded cross come to a false deduction that 
there is nothing in selection. If the Cypripe- 
diXim hybridist arrives at this stage of com- 
placency, believing that the law of chemce 
only applies, the doctrine of the fatalist, he 
is hopelessly handicapping himself. I am not 
able to discuss learnedly about " unit- 
characters," but I would like to point out that 
the albino species of Cypripediums, namely, 
insigne Sanderianum, callosum Sanderae and 
Lawrenceanum Hyeanum breed true when 
self-fertilised and also when intercrossed, but 
introduce a pseudo-albino like insigne San- 
derae into an otherwise white cross and 
trouble will be let loose. And yet insigne 
Sanderae, the pseudo-albino, breeds true when 
self-fertilised, so that the fact of an apparently 
albino variety of a coloured type coming true 
from seed when self-fertilised does not prove 
it to be a pure albino ; it only proves that it has 
come true from seed, and nothing more. Now 
let us take for argument's sake a hybrid 
Cypripedium that is highly coloured, but one 
or other of whose parents wasi an albino, true 
or false, would it be safe to use this hybrid in 
an endeavour to accentuate any colour that 
there was in it (other perhaps than green, 
white and yellow, which are the colours 
common to the albino, and which can be 
assured by sticking strictly to the albino) ? I 
should say that, knowing its ancestry, this 
would be a plant to avoid. A white variety 
lurking unseen in a hybrid must always be a 
source of colour-weakness in the next genera- 
tion, and prudence would dictate that this 
hybrid should not be usedu 
I would suggest as a pleasant introduction 
to the cultivation of the Cypripedium, the 
purchase of those beautiful white, green and 
yellow varieties that I have already named, 
and which are the true albinos of the group. 
Outsjide this' selection there are many beautiful 
yellow varieties of insigne, notably i. Sanderae, 
which would give variety. The last named 
variety has been raised true from seed in 
many collections, and has also been propa- 
gated by division, until it is perhaps the most 
plentifully grown of all the Cypripediums, and 
deservedly so. From a hundred guineas a 
growth, a price at which many plants changed 
hands well within my memory, it can now be 
secured at a few shillings, and yet it is just as 
beautiful as ever ! Bellatulum, niveum, Gode- 
fro>ae and concolor form a distinct little group 
by themselves, and would form a pleasing 
contrast to the others, and they have also been 
used with much advantage in hybridisation. 
Besides these a good selection should be made 
from the better species, so that a good grip 
of the ground-work may be acquired, when 
an individual opinion of what constitutes a 
good Cypripedium aviII gradually emerge, and 
with it a courage and sureness to venture into 
the more exclusive and more expensive market 
of the high-class hybrids. 
{To be continued') 
