RALPH R. KIESEWETTER 
Of 
KIESEWETTER ORCHID GARDENS 
begs to emphasize that a basically new plant-breeding policy 
has been in effect since 1952. Pursuant with the tenets of a rigid research 
program, only crosses from laboratory-controlled stud plants have thereafter 
been allowed on the market. Thenceforth, all seedlings bear the stated 
cytological composition of either parent. 
POLY PLOIDY 
by 
Dr. James A. de Tomasi 
Research Consultant 
In the world of Orchids, polyploidy has proven its forceful 
value in the development of fine hybrids. It is therefore not only a subject 
of academic interest but preeminently a most significant tool in modern 
hybridization. 
The facts leading up to polyploidy and its implications are as 
follows: all living organisms, plants or animals, transmit their body charac- 
teristics to their offspring by giving up, in the process of reproduction, min- 
ute amounts of a highly specialized living substance. This substance called 
chromatin, is the basic constituent of the nucleus of all tissue cells. When a 
cell is about to divide, the chromatin from an apparently unorganized 
scatter, separates into definite tiny bodies called chromosomes. They are 
the ultimate form of viszble (microscopically) carriers of hereditary units. 
Their shape, size and number are important differential characteristics. 
