"plumping," laid out on moss and potsherds; many of them have burst into
strong growth. Pleiones are flowering freely as they lie. This farmer's
crops come to harvest faster than he can attend to them. Things
beautiful and rare and costly are measured here by the yard--so many
feet of this piled up on the stage, so many of the other, from all
quarters of the world, waiting the leisure of these busy agriculturists.
Nor can we spare them more than a glance. The next house is filled with
Odontoglossums, planted out like "bedding stuff" in a nursery, awaiting
their turn to be potted. They make a carpet so close, so green, that
flowers are not required to charm the eye as it surveys the long
perspective. The rest are occupied just now with cargoes of imported
plants.
My pages are filled--to what poor purpose, seeing how they might have
been used for such a theme, no one could be so conscious as I.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 8: I was too sanguine. _Vanda teres_ refused to thrive.]
ORCHIDS AND HYBRIDIZING.
In the very first place, I declare that this is no scientific chapter.
It is addressed to the thousands of men and women in the realm who tend
a little group of orchids lovingly, and mark the wonders of their
structure with as much bewilderment as interest. They read of
hybridization, they see the result in costly specimens, they get books,
they study papers on the subject. But the deeper their research
commonly, the more they become convinced that these mysteries lie beyond
their attainment. I am not aware of any treatise which makes a serious
effort to teach the uninitiated. Putting technical expressions on one
side--though that obstacle is grave enough--every one of those which
have come under my notice takes the mechanical preliminaries for
granted. All are written by experts for experts. My purpose is contrary.
I wish to show how it is done so clearly that a child or the dullest
gardener may be able to perform the operations--so very easy when you
know how to set to work.
[Illustration: CYPRIPEDIUM (HYBRIDUM) POLLETTIANUM.
Reduced to One Sixth.]
After a single lesson, in the genus _Cypripedium_ alone, a young lady
of my household amused herself by concerting the most incredible
alliances--_Dendrobium_ with _Odontoglossum_, _Epidendrum_ with
_Oncidium_, _Oncidium_ with _Odontoglossum_, and so forth. It is
unnecessary to tell the experienced that in every case the seed vessel
swelled; that matter will be referred to presently. I mention the
incident only to show how simple are these processes if the key be
grasped.
Amateur hybridizers of an audacious class are wanted because, hitherto,
operators have kept so much to the beaten paths. The names of Veitch and
Dominy and Seden will endure when those of great _savants_ are
forgotten; but business men have been obliged to concentrate their zeal
upon experiments that pay. Fantastic crosses mean, in all probability, a
waste of time, space, and labour; in fact, it is not until recent years
that such attempts could be regarded as serious. So much the more
creditable, therefore, are Messrs. Veitch's exertions in that line.
But it seems likely to me that when hybridizing becomes a common pursuit
with those who grow orchids--and the time approaches fast--a very
strange revolution may follow. It will appear, as I think, that the
enormous list of pure species--even genera--recognized at this date may
be thinned in a surprising fashion. I believe--timidly, as becomes the
unscientific--that many distinctions which anatomy recognizes at present
as essential to a true species will be proved, in the future, to result
from promiscuous hybridization through æons of time. "Proved," perhaps,
is the word too strong, since human life is short; but such a mass of
evidence will be collected that reasonable men can entertain no doubt.
Of course the species will be retained, but we shall know it to be a
hybrid--the offspring, perhaps, of hybrids innumerable.
I incline more and more to think that even genera may be disturbed in a
surprising fashion, and I know that some great authorities agree with me
outright, though they are unprepared to commit themselves at present. A
very few years ago this suggestion would have been absurd, in the sense
that it wanted facts in support. As our ancestors made it an article of
faith that to fertilize an orchid was impossible for man, so we imagined
until lately that genera would not mingle. But this belief grows
unsteady. Though bi-generic crosses have not been much favoured, as
offering little prospect of success, such results have been obtained
already that the field of speculation lies open to irresponsible
persons like myself. When Cattleya has been allied with Sophronitis,
Sophronitis with Epidendrum, Odontoglossum with Zygopetalum, Coelogene
with Calanthe, one may credit almost anything. What should be stated on
the other side will appear presently.
How many hybrids have we now, established, and passing from hand to hand
as freely as natural species? There is no convenient record; but in the
trade list of a French dealer those he is prepared to supply are set
apart with Gallic precision. They number 416; but imagination and
commercial enterprise are not less characteristic of the Gaul than
precision.
In the excellent "Manual" of Messrs. Veitch, which has supplied me with
a mass of details, I find ten hybrid Calanthes; thirteen hybrid
Cattleyas, and fifteen Loelias, besides sixteen "natural
hybrids"--species thus classed upon internal evidence--and the wondrous
Sophro-Cattleya, bi-generic; fourteen Dendrobiums and one natural;
eighty-seven Cypripediums--but as for the number in existence, it is so
great, and it increases so fast, that Messrs. Veitch have lost count;
Phajus one, but several from alliance with Calanthe; Chysis two;
Epidendrum one; Miltonia one, and two natural; Masdevallia ten, and two
natural; and so on. And it must be borne in mind that these amazing
results have been effected in one generation. Dean Herbert's
achievements eighty years ago were not chronicled, and it is certain
that none of the results survive. Mr. Sander of St. Albans preserves an
interesting relic, the only one as yet connected with the science of
orchidology. This is _Cattleya hybrida_, the first of that genus raised
by Dominy, manager to Messrs. Veitch, at the suggestion of Mr. Harris of
Exeter, to the stupefaction of our grandfathers. Mr. Harris will ever be
remembered as the gentleman who showed Mr. Veitch's agent how orchids
are fertilized, and started him on his career. This plant was lost for
years, but Mr. Sander found it by chance in the collection of Dr.
Janisch at Hamburg, and he keeps it as a curiosity, for in itself the
object has no value. But this is a digression.
Dominy's earliest success, actually the very first of garden hybrids to
flower--in 1856--was _Calanthe Dominii_, offspring of _C. Masuca_ × _C.
furcata_;--be it here remarked that the name of the mother, or seed
parent, always stands first. Another interest attaches to _C. Dominii_.
Both its parents belong to the _Veratræfolia_ section of Calanthe, the
terrestrial species, and no other hybrid has yet been raised among them.
We have here one of the numberless mysteries disclosed by hybridization.
The epiphytal Calanthes, represented by _C. vestita_, will not cross
with the terrestrial, represented by _C. veratræfolia_, nor will the
mules of either. We may "give this up" and proceed. In 1859 flowered _C.
Veitchii_, from _C. rosea_, still called, as a rule, _Limatodes rosea, ×
C. vestita_. No orchid is so common as this, and none more simply
beautiful. But although the success was so striking, and the way to it
so easy, twenty years passed before even Messrs. Veitch raised another
hybrid Calanthe. In 1878 Seden flowered _C. Sedeni_ from _C. Veitchii ×
C. vestita_. Others entered the field then, especially Sir Trevor
Lawrence, Mr. Cookson, and Mr. Charles Winn. But the genus is small, and
they mostly chose the same families, often giving new names to the
progeny, in ignorance of each other's labour.
The mystery I have alluded to recurs again and again. Large groups of
species refuse to inter-marry with their nearest kindred, even plants
which seem identical in the botanist's point of view. There is good
ground for hoping, however, that longer and broader experience will
annihilate some at least of the axioms current in this matter. Thus, it
is repeated and published in the very latest editions of standard works
that South American Cattleyas, which will breed, not only among
themselves, but also with the Brazilian Loelias, decline an alliance
with their Mexican kindred. But Baron Schroeder possesses a hybrid of
such typical parentage as _Catt. citrina_, Mexican, and _Catt.
intermedia_, Brazilian. It was raised by Miss Harris, of Lamberhurst,
Kent, one single plant only; and it has flowered several times. Messrs.
Sander have crossed _Catt. guttata Leopoldii_, Brazil, with _Catt.
Dowiana_, Costa Rica, giving _Catt. Chamberliana_; _Loelia crispa_,
Brazil, with the same, giving _Loelio-Cattleya Pallas_; _Catt.
citrina_, Mexico, with _Catt. intermedia_, Brazil, giving _Catt. citrina
intermedia_ (Lamberhurst hybrid); _Loelia flava_, Brazil, with _Catt.
Skinneri_, Costa Rica, giving _Loelio-Catt. Marriottiana_; _Loelia
pumila_, Brazil, with _Catt. Dowiana_, Costa Rica, giving
_Loelio-Catt. Normanii_; _Loelia Digbyana_, Central America, with
_Catt. Mossiæ_, Venezuela, giving _Loelio-Catt. Digbyana-Mossiæ_;
_Catt. Mossiæ_, Venezuela, with _Loelia cinnabarina_, Brazil, giving
_Loelio-Catt. Phoebe_. Not yet flowered and unnamed, raised in the
Nursery, are _Catt. citrina_, Mexico, with _Loelia purpurata_, Brazil;
_Catt. Harrisoniæ_, Brazil, with _Catt. citrina_, Mexico; _Loelia
anceps_, Mexico, with _Epidendrum ciliare_, U.S. Colombia. In other
genera there are several hybrids of Mexican and South American
parentage; as _L. anceps_ × _Epid. ciliare_, _Sophronitis grandiflora_ ×
_Epid. radicans_, _Epid. xanthinum_ × _Epid. radicans_.
But among Cypripediums, the easiest and safest of all orchids to
hybridize, East Indian and American species are unfruitful. Messrs.
Veitch obtained such a cross, as they had every reason to believe, in
one instance. For sixteen years the plants grew and grew until it was
thought they would prove the rule by declining to flower. I wrote to
Messrs. Veitch to obtain the latest news. They inform me that one has
bloomed at last. It shows no trace of the American strain, and they have
satisfied themselves that there was an error in the operation or the
record. Again, the capsules secured from very many by-generic crosses
have proved, time after time, to contain not a single seed. In other
cases the seed was excellent to all appearance, but it has resolutely
refused to germinate. And further, certain by-generic seedlings have
utterly ignored one parent. _Zygopetalum Mackayi_ has been crossed by
Mr. Veitch, Mr. Cookson, and others doubtless, with various
Odontoglossums, but the flower has always turned out _Zygopetalum
Mackayi_ pure and simple--which becomes the more unaccountable more
one thinks of it.
Hybrids partake of the nature of both parents, but they incline
generally, as in the extreme cases mentioned, to resemble one much more
strongly than the other. When a Cattleya or Loelia of the single-leaf
section is crossed with one of the two-leaf, some of the offspring, from
the same capsule, show two leaves, others one only; and some show one
and two alternately, obeying no rule perceptible to us at present. So it
is with the charming _Loelia Maynardii_ from _L. Dayana_ × _Cattleya
dolosa_, just raised by Mr. Sander and named after the Superintendent of
his hybridizing operations. _Catt. dolosa_ has two leaves, _L. Dayana_
one; the product has two and one alternately. Sepals and petals are
alike in colour, rosy crimson, veined with a deeper hue; lip brightest
crimson-lake, long, broad and flat, curving in handsomely above the
column, which is closely depressed after the manner of _Catt. dolosa_.
The first bi-generic cross deserves a paragraph to itself if only on
that account; but its own merits are more than sufficient.
_Sophro-Cattleya Batemaniana_ was raised by Messrs. Veitch from
_Sophronitis grandiflora_ × _Catt. intermedia_. It flowered in August,
1886; petals and sepals rosy scarlet, lip pale lilac bordered with
amethyst and tipped with rosy purple.
But one natural hybrid has been identified among Dendrobes--the progeny
doubtless of _D. crassinode_ × _D. Wardianum_. Messrs. J. Laing have a
fine specimen of this; it shows the growth of the latter species with
the bloom of the former, but enlarged and improved. Several other hybrid
crosses are suspected. Of artificial we have not less than fifty.
Phaius--it is often spelt Phajus--is so closely allied with Calanthe
that for hybridizing purposes at least there is no distinction. Dominy
raised _Ph. irroratus_ from _Ph. grandifolius_ × _Cal. vestita_; Seden
made the same cross, but, using the variety _Cal. v. rubro-occulata_, he
obtained _Ph. purpureus_. The success is more interesting because one
parent is evergreen, the other, Calanthe, deciduous. On this account
probably very few seedlings survive; they show the former habit. Mr.
Cookson alone has yet raised a cross between two species of Phajus--_Ph.
Cooksoni_ from _Ph. Wallichii_ × _Ph. tuberculosus_. One may say that
this is the best hybrid yet raised, saving _Calanthe Veitchii_, if all
merits be considered--stateliness of aspect, freedom in flowering,
striking colour, ease of cultivation. One bulb will throw up four
spikes--twenty-eight have been counted in a twelve-inch pot--each
bearing perhaps thirty flowers.
Seden has made two crosses of Chysis, both from the exquisite _Ch.
bractescens_, one of the loveliest flowers that heaven has granted to
this world, but sadly fleeting. Nobody, I believe, has yet been so
fortunate as to obtain seed from _Ch. aurea_. This species has the rare
privilege of self-fertilization--we may well exclaim, Why! why?--and it
eagerly avails itself thereof so soon as the flower begins to open.
Thus, however watchful the hybridizer may be, hitherto he has found the
pollen masses melted in hopeless confusion before he can secure them.
One hybrid Epidendrum has been obtained--_Epi. O'Brienianum_ from _Epi.
evectum × Epi. radicans_; the former purple, the latter scarlet, produce
×a bright crimson progeny.
Miltonias show two natural hybrids, and one artificial--_Mil. Bleuiana_
from _Mil. vexillaria × Mil. Roezlii_; both of these are commonly
classed as Odontoglots, and I refer to them elsewhere under that title.
M. Bleu and Messrs. Veitch made this cross about the same time, but the
seedlings of the former flowered in 1889, of the latter, in 1891. Here
we see an illustration of the advantage which French horticulturists
enjoy, even so far north as Paris; a clear sky and abundant sunshine
made a difference of more than twelve months. When Italians begin
hybridizing, we shall see marvels--and Greeks and Egyptians!
Masdevallias are so attractive to insects, by striking colour, as a
rule, and sometimes by strong smell--so very easily fertilized
also--that we should expect many natural hybrids in the genus. They are
not forthcoming, however. Reichenbach displayed his scientific instinct
by suggesting that two species submitted to him might probably be the
issue of parents named; since that date Seden has produced both of them
from the crosses which Reichenbach indicated.
We have three natural hybrids among Phaloenopsis. _Ph. intermedia_ made
its appearance in a lot of _Ph. Aphrodite_, imported 1852. M. Porte, a
French trader, brought home two in 1861; they were somewhat different,
and he gave them his name. Messrs. Low imported several in 1874, one of
which, being different again, was called after Mr. Brymer. Three have
been found since, always among _Ph. Aphrodite_; the finest known is
possessed by Lord Rothschild. That these were natural hybrids could not
be doubted; Seden crossed _Ph. Aphrodite_ with _Ph. rosea_, and proved
it. Our garden hybrids are two: _Ph. F.L. Ames_, obtained from _Ph.
amabilis × Ph. intermedia_, and _Ph. Harriettæ_ from _Ph. amabilis ×
Ph. violacea_, named after the daughter of Hon. Erastus Corning, of
Albany, U.S.A.
Oncidiums yield only two natural hybrids at present, and those
uncertain; others are suspected. We have no garden hybrids, I believe,
as yet. So it is with Odontoglossums, as has been said, but in the
natural state they cross so freely that a large proportion of the
species may probably be hybrids. I allude to this hereafter.
I have left Cypripediums to the last, in these hasty notes, because that
supremely interesting genus demands more than a record of dry facts.
Darwin pointed out that Cypripedium represents the primitive form of
orchid. He was acquainted with no links connecting it with the later and
more complicated genera; some have been discovered since that day, but
it is nevertheless true that "an enormous extinction must have swept
away a multitude of intermediate forms, and left this single genus as
the record of a former and more simple state of the great orchidacean
order." The geographical distribution shows that Cypripedium was more
common in early times--to speak vaguely--and covered an area yet more
extensive than now. And the process of extermination is still working,
as with other primitive types.
Messrs. Veitch point out that although few genera of plants are
scattered so widely over the earth as Cypripedium, the species have
withdrawn to narrow areas, often isolated, and remote from their
kindred. Some are rare to the degree that we may congratulate ourselves
upon the chance which put a few specimens in safety under glass before
it was too late, for they seem to have become extinct even in this
generation. Messrs. Veitch give a few striking instances. All the plants
of _Cyp. Fairieanum_ known to exist have sprung from three or four
casually imported in 1856. Two bits of _Cyp. superbiens_ turned up among
a consignment of _Cyp. barbatum_; none have been found since, and it is
doubtful whether the species survives in its native home. Only three
plants of _Cyp. Marstersianium_ have been discovered. They reached Mr.
Bull in a miscellaneous case of Cypripediums forwarded to him by the
Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buitzenzorze, in Java; but that
gentleman and his successors in office have been unable to find another
plant. These three must have reached the Gardens by an accident--as they
left it--presented perhaps by some Dutchman who had been travelling.
_Cyp. purpuratum_ is almost extinct at Hong Kong, and is vanishing fast
on the mainland. It is still found occasionally in the garden of a
peasant, who, we are told, resolutely declines to sell his treasure.
This may seem incredible to those who know the Chinaman, but Mr.
Roebelin vouches for the fact; it is one more eccentricity to the credit
of that people, who had quite enough already. Collectors expect to find
a new habitat of _Cyp. purpuratum_ in Formosa when they are allowed to
explore that realm. Even our native _Cyp. calceolus_ has almost
disappeared; we get it now from Central Europe, but in several districts
where it abounded the supply grows continually less. The same report
comes from North America and Japan. Fortunate it is, but not surprising
to the thoughtful observer, that this genus grows and multiplies with
singular facility when its simple wants are supplied. There is no danger
that a species which has been rescued from extinction will perish under
human care.
This seems contradictory. How should a plant thrive better under
artificial conditions than in the spot where Nature placed it? The
reason lies in that archaic character of the Cypriped which Darwin
pointed out. Its time has passed--Nature is improving it off the face of
the earth. A gradual change of circumstances makes it more and more
difficult for this primitive form of orchid to exist, and, conscious of
the fate impending, it gratefully accepts our help.
One cause of extermination is easily grasped. Cypripeds have not the
power of fertilizing themselves, except a single species, _Cyp.
Schlimii_, which--accordingly, as we may say--is most difficult to
import and establish; moreover, it flowers so freely that the seedlings
are always weak. In all species the sexual apparatus is so constructed
that it cannot be impregnated by accident, and few insects can perform
the office. Dr. Hermann Muller studied _Cyp. calceolus_ assiduously in
this point of view. He observed only five species of insect which
fertilize it. _Cyp. calceolus_ has perfume and honey, but none of the
tropical species offer those attractions. Their colour is not showy. The
labellum proves to be rather a trap than a bait. Large insects which
creep into it and duly bear away the pollen masses, are caught and held
fast by that sticky substance when they try to escape through the
lateral passages, which smaller insects are too weak to force their way
through.
Natural hybrids occur so rarely, that their existence is commonly
denied. The assertion is not quite exact; but when we consider the
habits of the genus, it ceases to be extraordinary that Cypripeds
rarely cross in their wild state. Different species of Cattleya,
Odontoglots, and the rest live together on the same tree, side by side.
But those others dwell apart in the great majority of cases, each
species by itself, at a vast distance perhaps from its kindred. The
reason for this state of things has been mentioned--natural laws have
exterminated them in the spaces between, which are not so well fitted to
maintain a doomed race.
Doubtless Cypripeds rarely fertilize--by comparison, that is, of
course--in their native homes. The difficulty that insects find in
performing that service has been mentioned. Mr. Godseff points out to me
a reason far more curious and striking. When a bee displaces the pollen
masses of a Cattleya, for instance, they cling to its head or thorax by
means of a sticky substance attached to the pollen cases; so, on
entering the next flower, it presents the pollen _outwards_ to the
stigmatic surface. But in the case of a Cypriped there is no such
substance, the adhesive side of the pollen itself is turned outward, and
it clings to any intruding substance. But this is the fertilizing part.
Therefore, an insect which by chance displaces the pollen mass carries
it off, as one may say, the wrong side up. On entering the next flower,
it does not commonly present the surface necessary for impregnation, but
a sterile globule which is the backing thereof. We may suppose that in
the earlier age, when this genus flourished as the later forms of orchid
do now, it enjoyed some means of fertilization which have vanished.
Under such disadvantages it is not to be expected that seed capsules
would be often found upon imported Cypripeds. Messrs. Veitch state that
they rarely observed one among the myriads of plants that have passed
through their hands. With some species, however, it is not by any means
so uncommon. When Messrs. Thompson, of Clovenfords, bought a quantity of
the first _Cyp. Spicerianum_ which came upon the market, they found a
number of capsules, and sowed them, obtaining several hundred fine
plants. Pods are often imported on _Cyp. insigne_ full of good seed.
In the circumstances enumerated we have the explanation of an
extraordinary fact. Hybrids or natural species of Cypripediums
artificially raised are stronger than their parents, and they produce
finer flowers. The reason is that they get abundance of food in
captivity, and all things are made comfortable for them; whilst Nature,
anxious to be rid of a form of plant no longer approved, starves and
neglects them.