452 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



influence of C. concolor was very marked, the hybrid being 

 called C. x Marshallianuin. 



(4) In the Garden, May 26, 1888, the following note, signed 

 by " W.," appears : — " I recently saw in Mr. Buchan's garden at 

 Southampton a very good seedling of Cypripedium (longifolium) 

 Roezlii, which had been obtained from the same pod of seed 

 which produced C. x Sedeni candidulum (C. (longifolium) 

 Roezlii 5 xC. Schlimii albiflorum c?), evidently proving that all 

 the seeds were not crossed." 



(5) Mr. George McWilliams, of Whitingsville, Mass., U.S.A., 

 crossed C. Spicerianum? with pollen of C. niveuni<?, and all of 

 the plants came true C. Spicerianum ; while at another time Mr. 

 McWilliams raised from C. niveum $ x C. Spicerianum^ seed- 

 lings which showed both parents distinctly. (In litt., Septem- 

 ber 20, 1897. See American Gardening, March 23, 1895.) 

 The same thing too has been observed and recorded in Lilies, 

 Begonias, Strawberries, and other plants ; they have been called 

 " False Crosses." (See Gardeners' Chronicle, Nov. 10, 1894, 

 p. 568.) 



The first question that naturally arises when considering 

 these curiosities is, Are they true hybrids ? Were the seeds from 

 which they were raised fertilised by the pollen of the foreign 

 species ? If so, why are they not like the intermediate hybrids 

 raised before by others from the same cross, or, as in one case, 

 from the same seed-pod ? Now that we know something of the 

 actual details of fertilisation, we can confidently say that these 

 intermediate or true hybrids contained one half the nuclear 

 elements of the mother species and one half of the father species ; 

 but can we truly say this of these curiosities ? I think not. If 

 these curiosities reproduce the mother species simply, then they 

 must be made up of the nuclear elements of the mother species 

 only. In other words, they must either have been brought into 

 existence by self-fertilisation, or the ovules were developed 

 without the aid of pollen at all, which has been known to occur 

 at least once in an Orchid (Prof. Henslow, Structure of 

 Flowers, p. 171), which I will refer to in detail later on. 



But all seeds produced without pollen (parthenogenesis) 

 always reproduce the mother plant exactly down to the smallest 

 detail, being nothing more nor less tban seed-buds. But Mr. 

 Young writes : — " The plants of my C. barbatum ? C. niveum $ 



