lt
from promiscuous hybridization through aeons 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 certa