in
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_ x _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 _Veratraefolia_ 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. veratraefolia_, 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, x
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 x
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, whic