86 
THE ORCHID WORLD. 
[January, 1913. 
seems logical to call them Laslio-Cattleya, and 
if the Orchid breeder, for other reasons of his 
own, chooses to call these forms Cattleyas, in 
the circumstances it will be a rather difficult 
matter to deny him. 
Economics and Eugenics. 
The application of the principles of 
genetics to Orchid breeding brings out an 
economic point of considerable importance, 
the appreciation of which should save the 
breeder a considerable amount of time, 
trouble and expense. From what we have 
shown, it is evident that no useful purpose can 
be served by the indiscriminate matings of 
complex hybrids, which are far too common 
in Orchid breeding. From the economic 
point of view, it is extremely doubtful whether 
it is really necessary to go beyond the mating 
of primary hybrids in Orchid breeding. We 
have seen that any two good qualities can be 
combined in this way in the second genera- 
tion, in a single experiment with two, three, 
or four species or genera. 
If more than this be required, other parallel 
experiments can be carried out at the same 
time, and the respective results of the separate 
experiments can, if really necessary, be com- 
bined afterwards. For instance, experiment 
(i) might be carried out to make a Dark 
Scarlet Cattleya from Sophronitis grandiflora, 
while experiment (2) might be carried out at 
the same time to make an Orange Scarlet 
Cattleya from Laelia harpophylla. When 
these two shades of the Scarlet Cattleya are 
obtained in the second generation, they might 
be mated together m order to produce m the 
third generation a Scarlet Cattleya superior 
to both. 
Another great advantage in the adoption 
of the method of parallel experiments will be 
that the special secondary hybrids obtained 
m this way will of necessity have a double 
dose of each of the two good qualities bred 
for, consequently they will be equally valuable 
for use as stud Orchids ; being homozygous to 
the desired characters, they will breed true to 
themselves when selfed, and will give more 
definite and less variable results when crossed 
with one another. 
The application of the principles of genetics 
to Orchid breeding leads one to conclude that 
from the economic and eugenic point of view, 
the only sound method to adopt in Orchid 
breeding is to make a fresh start, by selecting 
a choice stud of the best individuals of the 
best varieties of the best species of the best 
genera, due preference being given to those 
stud individuals that have already bred a 
winner of the F.C.C. at the R.H.S. and have 
also proved themselves to be homozygous m 
their good qualities. These selected stud 
Orchids should be combined by crossing in 
every possible way, in order to make superior 
primary stud hybrids. Finally, these superior 
stud hybrids can be combined in any way 
that the breeder may think fit, in accordance 
with the particular objects he may have in 
view. 
ORCHID BREEDING. 
(ATTENDED the recent Orchid Confer- 
ence, and was much interested in 
Major Hurst's paper on the Application 
of Genetics to Orchid Breeding, and while 
appreciating its general excellence much of it 
is necessarily inferential and conjectural, and 
even were I wholeheartedly convinced that 
his premises were scientifically correct, I 
doubt their value in practical application. 
For instance, how am I to apply the first 
principles of genetics to Orchid breeding? 
I have discovered a " character " in a flower 
that I want to continue in my hybrid, but 
this desirable character is associated with 
other undesirable characters that are also 
heritable. How am I to separate the 
undesirable characters from the desirable 
one in the hybrid ? This is how Major Hurst 
becomes helpful : " When more than one 
heritable character is involved in the breeding 
problem, as usually happens m Orchids, the 
different kinds of individual plants become 
exceedingly numerous. One plant, for 
instance, may be homozygous for one 
character, heterozygous for another, and 
zerozygous for a third character, and so on. 
Each individual plant, however, has a definite 
germinal, or gametic, constitution, which can 
be ascertained by cross-breeding it with other 
