About Orchids Part 8

How many hybrids have we now, established, and pa.s.sing 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 ma.s.s of details, I find ten hybrid Calanthes; thirteen hybrid Cattleyas, and fifteen Loelias, besides sixteen "natural hybrids"--species thus cla.s.sed 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 certain 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_ _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. vest.i.ta_, 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, C. vest.i.ta_. 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 pa.s.sed before even Messrs. Veitch raised another hybrid Calanthe. In 1878 Seden flowered _C. Sedeni_ from _C. Veitchii C. vest.i.ta_. 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, which will breed, not only among themselves, but also with the Brazilian Loelias, decline an alliance with their Mexican kindred. But Baron Schroeder possesses a hybrid of such typical parentage as _Catt. citrina_, Mexican, and _Catt.

intermedia_, Brazilian. It was raised by Miss Harris, of Lamberhurst, Kent, one single plant only; and it has flowered several times. Messrs.

Sander have crossed _Catt. guttata Leopoldii_, Brazil, with _Catt.

Dowiana_, Costa Rica, giving _Catt. Chamberliana_; _Loelia crispa_, Brazil, with the same, giving _Loelio-Cattleya Pallas_; _Catt.

citrina_, Mexico, with _Catt. intermedia_, Brazil, giving _Catt. citrina intermedia_ (Lamberhurst hybrid); _Loelia flava_, Brazil, with _Catt.

Skinneri_, Costa Rica, giving _Loelio-Catt. Marriottiana_; _Loelia pumila_, Brazil, with _Catt. Dowiana_, Costa Rica, giving _Loelio-Catt. Normanii_; _Loelia Digbyana_, Central America, with _Catt. Mossiae_, Venezuela, giving _Loelio-Catt. Digbyana-Mossiae_; _Catt. Mossiae_, Venezuela, with _Loelia cinnabarina_, Brazil, giving _Loelio-Catt. Phoebe_. Not yet flowered and unnamed, raised in the Nursery, are _Catt. citrina_, Mexico, with _Loelia purpurata_, Brazil; _Catt. Harrisoniae_, Brazil, with _Catt. citrina_, Mexico; _Loelia anceps_, Mexico, with _Epidendrum ciliare_, U.S. Colombia. In other genera there are several hybrids of Mexican and South American parentage; as _L. anceps_ _Epid. ciliare_, _Sophronitis grandiflora_ _Epid. radicans_, _Epid. xanthinum_ _Epid. radicans_.

But among Cypripediums, the easiest and safest of all orchids to hybridize, East Indian and American species are unfruitful. Messrs.

Veitch obtained such a cross, as they had every reason to believe, in one instance. For sixteen years the plants grew and grew until it was thought they would prove the rule by declining to flower. I wrote to Messrs. Veitch to obtain the latest news. They inform me that one has bloomed at last. It shows no trace of the American strain, and they have satisfied themselves that there was an error in the operation or the record. Again, the capsules secured from very many by-generic crosses have proved, time after time, to contain not a single seed. In other cases the seed was excellent to all appearance, but it has resolutely refused to germinate. And further, certain by-generic seedlings have utterly ignored one parent. _Zygopetalum Mackayi_ has been crossed by Mr. Veitch, Mr. Cookson, and others doubtless, with 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_ _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_ _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. cra.s.sinode_ _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_ _Cal. vest.i.ta_; 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_ _Ph. tuberculosus_. One may say that this is the best hybrid yet raised, saving _Calanthe Veitchii_, if all merits be considered--stateliness of aspect, freedom in flowering, striking colour, ease of cultivation. One bulb will throw up four spikes--twenty-eight have been counted in a twelve-inch pot--each bearing perhaps thirty flowers.

Seden has made two crosses of Chysis, both from the exquisite _Ch.

bractescens_, one of the loveliest flowers that heaven has granted to this world, but sadly fleeting. n.o.body, I believe, has yet been so fortunate as to obtain seed from _Ch. aurea_. This species has the rare privilege of self-fertilization--we may well exclaim, Why! why?--and it eagerly avails itself thereof so soon as the flower begins to open.

Thus, however watchful the hybridizer may be, hitherto he has found the pollen ma.s.ses melted in hopeless confusion before he can secure them.

One hybrid Epidendrum has been obtained--_Epi. O'Brienianum_ from _Epi.

evectum Epi. radicans_; the former purple, the latter scarlet, produce a bright crimson progeny.

Miltonias show two natural hybrids, and one artificial--_Mil. Bleuiana_ from _Mil. vexillaria Mil. Roezlii_; both of these are commonly cla.s.sed as Odontoglots, and I refer to them elsewhere under that t.i.tle.

M. Bleu and Messrs. Veitch made this cross about the same time, but the seedlings of the former flowered in 1889, of the latter, in 1891. Here we see an ill.u.s.tration of the advantage which French horticulturists enjoy, even so far north as Paris; a clear sky and abundant suns.h.i.+ne made a difference of more than twelve months. When Italians begin hybridizing, we shall see marvels--and Greeks and Egyptians!

Masdevallias are so attractive to insects, by striking colour, as a rule, and sometimes by strong smell--so very easily fertilized also--that we should expect many natural hybrids in the genus. They are not forthcoming, however. Reichenbach displayed his scientific instinct by suggesting that two species submitted to him might probably be the issue of parents named; since that date Seden has produced both of them from the crosses which Reichenbach indicated.

We have three natural hybrids among Phaloenopsis. _Ph. intermedia_ made its appearance in a lot of _Ph. Aphrodite_, imported 1852. M. Porte, a French trader, brought home two in 1861; they were somewhat different, and he gave them his name. Messrs. Low imported several in 1874, one of which, being different again, was called after Mr. Brymer. Three have been found since, always among _Ph. Aphrodite_; the finest known is possessed by Lord Rothschild. That these were natural hybrids could not be doubted; Seden crossed _Ph. Aphrodite_ with _Ph. rosea_, and proved it. Our garden hybrids are two: _Ph. F.L. Ames_, obtained from _Ph.

amabilis Ph. intermedia_, and _Ph. Harriettae_ from _Ph. amabilis Ph. violacea_, named after the daughter of Hon. Erastus Corning, of Albany, U.S.A.

Oncidiums yield only two natural hybrids at present, and those uncertain; others are suspected. We have no garden hybrids, I believe, as yet. So it is with Odontoglossums, as has been said, but in the natural state they cross so freely that a large proportion of the species may probably be hybrids. I allude to this hereafter.

I have left Cypripediums to the last, in these hasty notes, because that supremely interesting genus demands more than a record of dry facts.

Darwin pointed out that Cypripedium represents the primitive form of orchid. He was acquainted with no links connecting it with the later and more complicated genera; some have been discovered since that day, but it is nevertheless true that "an enormous extinction must have swept away a mult.i.tude of intermediate forms, and left this single genus as the record of a former and more simple state of the great orchidacean order." The geographical distribution shows that Cypripedium was more common in early times--to speak vaguely--and covered an area yet more extensive than now. And the process of extermination is still working, as with other primitive types.

Messrs. Veitch point out that although few genera of plants are scattered so widely over the earth as Cypripedium, the species have withdrawn to narrow areas, often isolated, and remote from their kindred. Some are rare to the degree that we may congratulate ourselves upon the chance which put a few specimens in safety under gla.s.s before it was too late, for they seem to have become extinct even in this generation. Messrs. Veitch give a few striking instances. All the plants of _Cyp. Fairieanum_ known to exist have sprung from three or four casually imported in 1856. Two bits of _Cyp. superbiens_ turned up among a consignment of _Cyp. barbatum_; none have been found since, and it is doubtful whether the species survives in its native home. Only three plants of _Cyp. Marstersianium_ have been discovered. They reached Mr.

Bull in a miscellaneous case of Cypripediums forwarded to him by the Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buitzenzorze, in Java; but that gentleman and his successors in office have been unable to find another plant. These three must have reached the Gardens by an accident--as they left it--presented perhaps by some Dutchman who had been travelling.

_Cyp. purpuratum_ is almost extinct at Hong Kong, and is vanis.h.i.+ng fast on the mainland. It is still found occasionally in the garden of a peasant, who, we are told, resolutely declines to sell his treasure.

This may seem incredible to those who know the Chinaman, but Mr.

Roebelin vouches for the fact; it is one more eccentricity to the credit of that people, who had quite enough already. Collectors expect to find a new habitat of _Cyp. purpuratum_ in Formosa when they are allowed to explore that realm. Even our native _Cyp. calceolus_ has almost disappeared; we get it now from Central Europe, but in several districts where it abounded the supply grows continually less. The same report comes from North America and j.a.pan. Fortunate it is, but not surprising to the thoughtful observer, that this genus grows and multiplies with singular facility when its simple wants are supplied. There is no danger that a species which has been rescued from extinction will perish under human care.

This seems contradictory. How should a plant thrive better under artificial conditions than in the spot where Nature placed it? The reason lies in that archaic character of the Cypriped which Darwin pointed out. Its time has pa.s.sed--Nature is improving it off the face of the earth. A gradual change of circ.u.mstances makes it more and more difficult for this primitive form of orchid to exist, and, conscious of the fate impending, it gratefully accepts our help.

One cause of extermination is easily grasped. Cypripeds have not the power of fertilizing themselves, except a single species, _Cyp.

Schlimii_, which--accordingly, as we may say--is most difficult to import and establish; moreover, it flowers so freely that the seedlings are always weak. In all species the s.e.xual apparatus is so constructed that it cannot be impregnated by accident, and few insects can perform the office. Dr. Hermann Muller studied _Cyp. calceolus_ a.s.siduously in this point of view. He observed only five species of insect which fertilize it. _Cyp. calceolus_ has perfume and honey, but none of the tropical species offer those attractions. Their colour is not showy. The labellum proves to be rather a trap than a bait. Large insects which creep into it and duly bear away the pollen ma.s.ses, are caught and held fast by that sticky substance when they try to escape through the lateral pa.s.sages, which smaller insects are too weak to force their way through.

Natural hybrids occur so rarely, that their existence is commonly denied. The a.s.sertion is not quite exact; but when we consider the habits of the genus, it ceases to be extraordinary that Cypripeds rarely cross in their wild state. Different species of Cattleya, Odontoglots, and the rest live together on the same tree, side by side.

But those others dwell apart in the great majority of cases, each species by itself, at a vast distance perhaps from its kindred. The reason for this state of things has been mentioned--natural laws have exterminated them in the s.p.a.ces between, which are not so well fitted to maintain a doomed race.

Doubtless Cypripeds rarely fertilize--by comparison, that is, of course--in their native homes. The difficulty that insects find in performing that service has been mentioned. Mr. G.o.dseff points out to me a reason far more curious and striking. When a bee displaces the pollen ma.s.ses of a Cattleya, for instance, they cling to its head or thorax by means of a sticky substance attached to the pollen cases; so, on entering the next flower, it presents the pollen _outwards_ to the stigmatic surface. But in the case of a Cypriped there is no such substance, the adhesive side of the pollen itself is turned outward, and it clings to any intruding substance. But this is the fertilizing part.

Therefore, an insect which by chance displaces the pollen ma.s.s carries it off, as one may say, the wrong side up. On entering the next flower, it does not commonly present the surface necessary for impregnation, but a sterile globule which is the backing thereof. We may suppose that in the earlier age, when this genus flourished as the later forms of orchid do now, it enjoyed some means of fertilization which have vanished.

Under such disadvantages it is not to be expected that seed capsules would be often found upon imported Cypripeds. Messrs. Veitch state that they rarely observed one among the myriads of plants that have pa.s.sed through their hands. With some species, however, it is not by any means so uncommon. When Messrs. Thompson, of Clovenfords, bought a quant.i.ty of the first _Cyp. Spicerianum_ which came upon the market, they found a number of capsules, and sowed them, obtaining several hundred fine plants. Pods are often imported on _Cyp. insigne_ full of good seed.

In the circ.u.mstances enumerated we have the explanation of an extraordinary fact. Hybrids or natural species of Cypripediums artificially raised are stronger than their parents, and they produce finer flowers. The reason is that they get abundance of food in captivity, and all things are made comfortable for them; whilst Nature, anxious to be rid of a form of plant no longer approved, starves and neglects them.

The same argument enables us to understand why Cypripeds lend themselves so readily to the hybridizer. Darwin taught us to expect that species which can rarely hope to secure a chance of reproduction will learn to make the process as easy and as sure as the conditions would admit--that none of those scarce opportunities may be lost. And so it proves.

Orchidaceans are apt to declare that "everybody" is hybridizing Cypripeds nowadays. At least, so many persons have taken up this agreeable and interesting pursuit that science has lost count of the less striking results. Briefly, the first hybrid Cypripedium was raised by Dominy, in 1869, and named after Mr. Harris, who, as has been said, suggested the operation to him. Seden produced the next in 1874--_Cyp.

Sedeni_ from _Cyp. Schlimii Cyp. longiflorum_; curious as the single instance yet noted in which seedlings turn out identical, whichever parent furnish the pollen-ma.s.ses. In every other case they vary when the functions of the parents are exchanged.

For a long time after 1853, when serious work begun, Messrs. Veitch had a monopoly of the business. It is but forty years, therefore, since experiments commenced, in which time hundreds of hybrids have been added to our list of flowers; but--this is my point--Nature has been busy at the same task for unknown ages, and who can measure the fruits of her industry? I do not offer the remark as an argument; our observations are too few as yet. It may well be urged that if Nature had been thus active, the "natural hybrids" which can be recognized would be much more numerous than they are. I have pointed out that many of the largest genera show very few; many none at all. But is it impossible that the explanation appears to fail only because we cannot yet push it far enough? When the hybridizer causes by force a fruitful union betwixt two genera, he seems to triumph over a botanical law. But suppose the genera themselves are artificial, only links in a grand chain which Nature has forged slowly, patiently, with many a break and many a failure, in the course of ages? She would finish her work bit by bit, and at every stage the new variety may have united with others in endless succession. Few natural hybrids can be identified among Cattleyas, for instance. But suppose Cattleyas are all hybrids, the result of promiscuous intercourse among genera during cycles of time--suppose, that is, the genus itself sprang from parents widely diverse, crossing, returning, intercrossing from age to age? It is admitted that Cypripedium represents a primeval form--perhaps _the_ primeval form--of orchid. Suppose that we behold, in this nineteenth century, a mere epoch, or stage, in the ceaseless evolution? Only an irresponsible amateur could dare talk in this way. It would, in truth, be very futile speculation if experiments already successful did not offer a chance of proof one day, and others, hourly ripening, did not summon us to think.

I may cite, with the utmost brevity, two or three facts which--to me unscientific--appear inexplicable, unless species of orchid were developed on the spot; or the theory of special local creations be admitted. _Oncidium cucullatum_ flourishes in certain limited areas of Peru, of Ecuador, of Colombia, and of Venezuela. It is not found in the enormous s.p.a.ces between, nor are any Oncidiums which might be accepted as its immediate parents. Can we suppose that the winds or the birds carried it over mountain ranges and broad rivers more than two thousand miles, in four several directions, to establish it upon a narrow tract?

It is a question of faith; but, for my own part, I could as soon believe that aesthetic emigrants took it with them. But even winds and birds could not bear the seed of _Dendrobium heterocarpum_ from Ceylon to Burmah, and from Burmah to Luzon in the Philippines; at least, I am utterly unable to credit it. If the plants were identical, or nearly, in their different habitats, this case would be less significant. But the _D. heterocarpum_ of Ceylon has a long, thin pseudo-bulb, with bright yellow flowers; that of Burmah is short and thick, with paler colouring; that of Luzon is no less than three feet high, exaggerating the stature of its most distant relative while showing the colour of its nearest; but all, absolutely, the same botanic plant. I have already mentioned other cases.

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 a.s.surance 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 superb.u.m_ 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 a.s.sume, 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 genus.

I have named Mr. Cookson several times; in fact, to discourse of hybridization for amateurs without reference to his astonis.h.i.+ng "record"