Fchrii;iry, 1913.] 
THE ORCHID WORT.D. 
by some little success in competition, that it 
is not the analysis m fractions that is 
erroneous, but the undue insistence sometimes 
placed on the value of these fractions as a 
liasis for breeding'. 
Is not Major Hurst's statement of fact — 
that characters segregate in the second 
generation — rather misleading? Do char- 
acters segregate at all? After perusing 
Professor Bateson's and Professor Punnett's 
beautiful little books on Mendelism and com- 
paring them with the closely reasoned treatise 
on the laws of heredity by Dr. Reid, T am 
still inclined to be of the opinion that 
characters blend. Some theorists on genetics 
may state their opinion that characters segre- 
gate, others that they blend, in succeeding 
generations, but no one may correctly state 
either to be a proved fact. 
John Crombleholme. 
ORCHID BREEDING. 
Dominance of L.elia Cowanii. — In 
reference to the remark of Major Hurst (p. 85) 
that L. Cowanii so far appears to give all 
yellow selfs with both coloured and albino 
forms. I have already flowered L.-C. Oriens 
(Trianas x Cowann) which had a beautiful 
flower with a nice crimson front lobe to the 
lip. The first Oriens, I believe, came plain, 
from which I gather that Major Hurst infers 
that L. Cowanii gives hybrids without the 
usual crimson when crossed with coloured 
Cattleyas, but I fear this is a premature 
conclusion. — Eiis/acc F. Clark, Hi'crshot 
Blotched CRISPUMS. — I am sorry to say I 
do not quite agree with Major Hurst regard- 
ing his method of obtaining a blotched 
crispum by crossing crispum with Wilckeanum 
(crispum x luteopurpureum). This will produce 
mirum, and in crossing these plants again 
there will always arise the risk of obtaining 
some yellow ones amongst the seedlings. In 
former days, when several blotched crispums 
were crossed with blotched crispums, and so 
many bad and white varieties were obtained, 
I think the crispums used as parents were not 
heavily blotched enough, or sufficiently well 
coloured. My personal experience has been 
that when using crispum Mossiae, one of the 
heaviest blotched crispums ever seen, all the 
seedlings are blotched. Crispum Mossiae may 
have hybrid blood in it, but it certainly is not 
luteopurpureum, the colour being port wine. — ■ 
/. .S'. Moss, Bishofs Walt ham. 
CYPRIPEniUM Leeanum. — Mr. Hunter, 
Orchid grower to His Grace the Duke of 
Marlborough, has recently flowered a large 
and bold type of Cypripedium Leeanum, 
which has been produced by crossing together 
Leeanum giganteum and Leeanum Laver- 
tonianum. Two plants from the resulting 
seed-pod have so far flowered. The first gave 
a very deformed bloom ; the second, although 
slightly deformed, produced a flower in all 
other respects superior to either parent. In 
this we have an example of Major Hurst's 
suggestion to mate together two similar 
hybrids. An increase in the size of the flower 
has certainly been produced, but the deformity 
IS not encouraging. 
The Re-making of a Blotched 
Crispum. 
MAJOR HURST'S Paper, in its 
second half (p. 82), will go far to 
convince even the most obdurate 
opponent of a crispum being a hybrid, and, 
personally, I am naturally very pleased to 
welcome his reasoning" hereon, which certainly 
very unreservedly endorses what I have 
stated, in and out of season, for many years 
past. I thank him cordially, and am glad to 
see him on my side, for he has made it a 
deep and interesting study, and though he 
may be too absolute in the Mendelian results, 
we can travel a long way together on the 
same road. 
While agreeing with the process of Nature 
making a blotched crispum, I do not think 
it possible that the resulting hybrids all 
behave m the regular arithmetical manner 
that Major Hurst lays down, because the 
plain crispum tiiusI have had some coloured 
blooded ancestors, and hence a latent germ 
would upset the regular order of sectional 
division. 
