d
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 resu