482 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



lucky if I do not reap the whirlwind also in the death of my 

 plants by submitting them to such a parentage. I must say that 

 I am a little more hopeful in this matter than M. Mantin appears 

 to be, though I stated at the time that " it yet remains to be 

 seen whether these healthy-looking pods will produce good seed." 

 (Orch. Rev. v. p. 180.) 



True, in one case I have already " reaped the wind," but in 

 another I have reaped good seeds, and one success is worth many 

 failures, so that I am looking forward to the future with increased 

 interest. With regard to the health of the plants bearing these 

 seed-pods, I do not find that they have suffered more than is 

 usual with seed-bearing plants, and I hope that the " whirlwind " 

 may be yet a great way off. 



Still, I do not think it wise to lay too much stress on the 

 production of pods in these curious generic crosses, for pods are 

 often formed apart from fertilisation or pollination. Darwin in 

 his " Animals and Plants," i. p. 434, gives a remarkable instance 

 of this. " Mr. Smith, late Curator at Kew, observed the singular 

 fact that the development of the ovarium could be effected in 

 the South African Orchid, Bonatea speciosa, by the mechanical 

 irritation of the stigma ivithout any 'pollen" The Secretary 

 of the Orchid Committee, Mr. Jas. O'Brien, has had a similar 

 experience with Lycaste Skinneri and Odontoglossum crispum. 

 (In. litt., September 25, 1897.) By placing small pieces of 

 grit on the stigmas of these, he found that the ovaries in many 

 cases swelled, and the pods attained maturity just as though the 

 flowers had been properly fertilised ; but of course with no vitality 

 in the grains within. We have already seen how Dr. Hilde- 

 brandt and Mr. Harry Veitch independently observed that the 

 development of the pod in the ordinary pollination of Dendro- 

 bium and Cattleya takes place long before the pollen tubes have 

 reached the ovules. We also know from experiments that pollen 

 grains will push out pollen tubes in an artificial sugar solution, 

 altogether apart from the stigma ; and, further, that pollen grains 

 placed in gelatine at some distance from isolated ovules in the 

 same medium send out their tubes and at once make for the 

 ovules. This has been observed in the case of widely different 

 plants. Thus the pollen tubes of a Monocotyledon have been 

 attracted by ovules of Dicotyledons, and in some cases have 

 actually penetrated the micropyle itself ; but, of course, fertilisa- 



