HORTICULTURAL NOMENCLATURE. 



145 



Cypnpediu7n x hybridum ' Frau Geheimrat Borsig ' ('/ Garten- 

 flora," 1892, p. 393, t. 1501). 

 Reply. — 



See 8 and 9 above. 



Note. — None of the foregoing rules and recommendations should 

 be retrospective in their action where their application would require 

 a change in an existing name, for such application would be likely 

 to interfere greatly with commerce and with garden nomenclature of 

 all kinds, and produce confusion worse confounded. 



This does not, however, preclude the application of the principle 

 of priority, and the resultant sinking of many names as synonymous. 



11. Varieties of hybrids. — The following rule is generally adopted by 

 English horticulturists, and is strictly observed by MM. Eolfe and Hurst 

 in their " Orchid Stud-Book," 1909 : 



All the hybrids arising from the crossing of the same two species 

 carry the same specific name. All forms proceeding from the same 

 crossing or from successive crossing of varieties of these two species 

 are attached as varieties to the same specific name. 



Should this rule, which seems indispensable in order to avoid the 

 creation of an incalculable number of useless specific names, be 

 adopted ? 



Thus, in 1894, following the flowering of the first crossing result- 

 ing from the fertilization of Cypripedimn Spicerianum by C. x nitens, 

 different plants of that single crossing received sixteen distinct specific 

 names. Subsequently twenty other names were given to products of 

 the same cross. 



In applying the foregoing rule these 36 names ought to have been 

 assigned as varietal names under the same specific name (C x 

 aureum). 



It is to be remarked that, in spite of the application of this rule, 

 MM. Eolfe and Hurst still admit 758 specilic names for hybrids 

 obtained up to January 1, 1909, in the genus Paphiopedilum, a sub- 

 division of the old Cypripedium. 

 Reply. — 



The rule enunciated in the second paragraph of the section should 

 be strictly adhered to. But when the parents of a hybrid are trans- 

 ferred to a new (or to another) genus, then the name of the hybrid 

 follows, and the specific name would follow the rules applying to 

 ■ species under similar conditions. 



12. In what language should the names of varieties of hybrids be 

 expressed? Logically, the same language should be permitted as 

 for varieties of species (see Question 2). 



The committee nominated by the Societe Nationale d 'Horticulture 

 de France for the study of the nomenclature of intergeneric orchid 

 hybrids recommends : 



• ^ .Que les noms des varietes doivent toujours etre des noms com- 

 memoratifs ou exprimant une dedicace, et nan des noms latins, 



VOL. XXXYII. L 



