.

Experience hitherto suggests that we cannot raise Odontoglossum
seedlings in this climate; very, very few have ever been obtained.
Attempts in France have been rather more successful. Baron Adolf de
Rothschild has four different hybrids of Odontoglossum in bud at this
present moment in his garden at Armainvilliers, near Paris. M. Moreau
has a variety of seedlings.

Authorities admit now that a very great proportion of our Odontoglossums
are natural hybrids; so many can be identified beyond the chance of
error that the field for speculation has scarcely bounds. _O. excellens_
is certainly descended from _O. Pescatorei_ and _O. triumphans_, _O.
elegans_ from _O. cirrhosum_ and _O. Hallii_, _O. Wattianum_ from _O.
Harryanum_ and _O. hystrix_. And it must be observed that we cannot
trace pedigree beyond the parents as yet, saving a very, very few cases.
But unions have been contracting during cycles of time; doubtless, from
the laws of things the orchid is latest born of Nature's children in the
world of flora, but mighty venerable by this time, nevertheless. We can
identify the mixed offspring of _O. crispum Alexandrae_ paired with _O.
gloriosum_, with _O. luteopurpureum_, with _O. Lindleyanum_; these
parents dwell side by side, and they could not fail to mingle. We can
already trace with assurance a few double crosses, as _O. lanceans_, the
result of an alliance between _O. crispum Alexandrae_ and _O.
Ruckerianum_, which latter is a hybrid of the former with _O.
gloriosum_. When we observe _O. Roezlii_ upon the bank of the River
Cauca and _O. vexillarium_ on the higher ground, whilst _O. vexillarium
superbum_ lives between, we may confidently attribute its peculiarity of
a broad dark blotch upon the lip to the influence of _O. Roezlii_. So,
taking station at Manaos upon the Amazons, we find, to eastward,
_Cattleya superba_, to westward _C. Eldorado_, and in the midst _C.
Brymeriana_, which, it is safe to assume, represents the union of the
two; for that matter, the theory will very soon be tested, for M.
Alfred Bleu has "made the cross" of _C. superba_ and _C. Eldorado_, and
its flower is expected with no little interest.

These cases, and many more, are palpable. We see a variety in the making
at this date. A thousand years hence, or ten thousand, by more distant
alliances, by a change of conditions, the variety may well have
developed into a species, or, by marriage excursions yet wider, it may
have founded a genu