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_ x _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_ x _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_ x _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_ x _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_ x _Ph. tuberculosus_. One may say that
this is the best hybrid yet