About Orchids Part 7

The "Importing Room" first demands notice. Here cases are received by fifties and hundreds, week by week, from every quarter of the orchid world, unpacked, and their contents stored until s.p.a.ce is made for them up above. It is a long apartment, broad and low, with tables against the wall and down the middle, heaped with things which to the uninitiated seem, for the most part, dry sticks and dead bulbs. Orchids everywhere!

They hang in dense bunches from the roof. They lie a foot thick upon every board, and two feet thick below. They are suspended on the walls.

Men pa.s.s incessantly along the gangways, carrying a load that would fill a barrow. And all the while fresh stores are acc.u.mulating under the hands of that little group in the middle, bent and busy at cases just arrived. They belong to a lot of eighty that came in from Burmah last night--and while we look on, a boy brings a telegram announcing fifty more from Mexico, that will reach Waterloo at 2.30 p.m. Great is the wrath and great the anxiety at this news, for some one has blundered; the warning should have been despatched three hours before. Orchids must not arrive at unknown stations unless there be somebody of discretion and experience to meet them, and the next train does not leave St.

Albans until 2.44 p.m. Dreadful is the sense of responsibility, alarming the suggestions of disaster, that arise from this incident.

The Burmese cases in hand just now are filled with Dendrobiums, _cra.s.sinode_ and _Wardianum_, stowed in layers as close as possible, with _D. Falconerii_ for packing material. A royal way of doing things indeed to subst.i.tute an orchid of value for shavings or moss, but mighty convenient and profitable. For that packing will be sent to the auction-rooms presently, and will be sold for no small proportion of the sum which its more delicate charge attains. We remark that the experienced persons who remove these precious sticks, layer by layer, perform their office gingerly. There is not much danger or unpleasantness in unpacking Dendrobes, compared with other genera, but s.h.i.+p-rats spring out occasionally and give an ugly bite; scorpions and centipedes have been known to harbour in the close roots of _D.

Falconerii_; stinging ants are by no means improbable, nor huge spiders; while c.o.c.kroaches of giant size, which should be killed, may be looked for with certainty. But men learn a habit of caution by experience of cargoes much more perilous. In those ma.s.ses of _Arundina bambusaefolia_ beneath the table yonder doubtless there are centipedes lurking, perhaps even scorpions, which have escaped the first inspection. Happily, these pests are dull, half-stupefied with the cold, when discovered, and no man here has been stung, circ.u.mspect as they are; but ants arrive as alert and as vicious as in their native realm. Distinctly they are no joke. To handle a consignment of _Epidendrum bicornutum_ demands some nerve. A very ugly species loves its hollow bulbs, which, when disturbed, shoots out with lightning swiftness and nips the arm or hand so quickly that it can seldom be avoided. But the most awkward cases to deal with are those which contain _Schomburghkia tibicinis_. This superb orchid is so difficult to bloom that very few will attempt it; I have seen its flower but twice. Packers strongly approve the reluctance of the public to buy, since it restricts importation. The foreman has been laid up again and again. But they find pleasing curiosities also, tropic beetles, and insects, and coc.o.o.ns. Dendrobiums in especial are favoured by moths; _D. Wardianum_ is loaded with their webs, empty as a rule. Hitherto the men have preserved no chrysalids, but at this moment they have a few, of unknown species.

The farmer gets strange bits of advice sometimes, and strange offers of a.s.sistance. Talking of insects reminds him of a letter received last week. Here it is:--

SIRS,--I have heard that you are large growers of orchids; am I right in supposing that in their growth or production you are much troubled with some insect or caterpillar which r.e.t.a.r.ds or hinders their arrival at maturity, and that these insects or caterpillars can be destroyed by small snakes? I have tracts of land under my occupation, and if these small snakes can be of use in your culture of orchids you might write, as I could get you some on knowing what these might be worth to you.

Yours truly ----

Thence we mount to the potting-rooms, where a dozen skilled workmen try to keep pace with the growth of the imported plants; taking up, day by day, those which thrust out roots so fast that postponement is injurious. The broad middle tables are heaped with peat and moss and leaf-mould and white sand. At counters on either side unskilled labourers are sifting and mixing, while boys come and go, laden with pots and baskets of teak-wood and crocks and charcoal. These things are piled in heaps against the walls; they are stacked on frames overhead; they fill the semi-subterranean chambers of which we get a glimpse in pa.s.sing. Our farm resembles a factory in this department.

Ascending to the upper earth again, and crossing the corridor, we may visit number one of those gla.s.s-houses opposite. I cannot imagine, much more describe, how that spectacle would strike one to whom it was wholly unfamiliar. These buildings--there are twelve of them, side by side--measure one hundred and eighty feet in length, and the narrowest has thirty-two feet breadth. This which we enter is devoted to _Odontoglossum crispum_, with a few _Masdevallias_. There were twenty-two thousand pots in it the other day; several thousand have been sold, several thousand have been brought in, and the number at this moment cannot be computed. Our farmer has no time for speculative arithmetic; he deals in produce wholesale. Telegraph an order for a thousand _crispums_ and you cause no stir in the establishment. You take it for granted that a large dealer only could propose such a transaction. But it does not follow at all. n.o.body would credit, unless he had talked with one of the great farmers, on what enormous scale orchids are cultivated up and down by private persons. Our friend has a client who keeps his stock of _O. crispum_ alone at ten thousand; but others, less methodical, may have more.

Opposite the door is a high staging, mounted by steps, with a gangway down the middle and shelves descending on either hand. Those shelves are crowded with fine plants of the glorious _O. crispum_, each bearing one or two spikes of flower, which trail down, interlace, arch upward. Not all are in bloom; that amazing sight may be witnessed for a month to come--for two months, with such small traces of decay as the casual visitor would not notice. So long and dense are the wreaths, so broad the flowers, that the structure seems to be festooned from top to bottom with snowy garlands. But there is more. Overhead hang rows of baskets, lessening in perspective, with pendent sprays of bloom. And broad tables which edge the walls beneath that staging display some thousands still, smaller but not less beautiful. A sight which words could not portray. I yield in despair.

The tillage of the farm is our business, and there are many points here which the amateur should note. Observe the bricks beneath your feet.

They have a hollow pattern which retains the water, though your boots keep dry. Each side of the pathway lie shallow troughs, always full.

Beneath that staging mentioned is a bed of leaves, interrupted by a tank here, by a group of ferns there, vividly green. Slender iron pipes run through the house from end to end, so perforated that on turning a tap they soak these beds, fill the little troughs and hollow bricks, play in all directions down below, but never touch a plant. Under such constant drenching the leaf-beds decay, throwing up those gases and vapours in which the orchid delights at home. Thus the amateur should arrange his greenhouse, so far as he may. But I would not have it understood that these elaborate contrivances are essential. If you would beat Nature, as here, making invariably such bulbs and flowers as she produces only under rare conditions, you must follow this system. But orchids are not exacting.

The house opens, at its further end, in a magnificent structure designed especially to exhibit plants of warm species in bloom. It is three hundred feet long, twenty-six wide, eighteen high--the piping laid end to end, would measure as nearly as possible one mile: we see a practical ill.u.s.tration of the resources of the establishment, when it is expected to furnish such a show. Here are stored the huge specimens of _Cymbidium Lowianum_, nine of which astounded the good people of Berlin with a display of one hundred and fifty flower spikes, all open at once.

We observe at least a score as well furnished, and hundreds which a royal gardener would survey with pride. They rise one above another in a great bank, crowned and brightened by garlands of pale green and chocolate. Other Cymbidiums are here, but not the beautiful _C.

eburneum_. Its large white flowers, erect on a short spike, not drooping like these, will be found in a cool house--smelt with delight before they are found.

Further on we have a bank of Dendrobiums, so densely clothed in bloom that the leaves are unnoticed. Lovely beyond all to my taste, if, indeed, one may make a comparison, is _D. luteolum_, with flowers of palest, tenderest primrose, rarely seen unhappily, for it will not reconcile itself to our treatment. Then again a bank of Cattleyas, of Vandas, of miscellaneous genera. The pathway is hedged on one side with _Begonia coralina_, an unimproved species too straggling of growth and too small of flower to be worth its room under ordinary conditions; but a glorious thing here, climbing to the roof, festooned at every season of the year with countless rosy sprays.

Beyond this show-house lie the small structures devoted to "hybridization," but I deal with them in another chapter. Here also are the Phaloenopsis, the very hot Vandas, Bolleas, Pescatoreas, Anaectochili, and such dainty but capricious beauties.

We enter the second of the range of greenhouses, also devoted to Odontoglossums, Masdevallias, and "cool" genera, as crowded as the last; pa.s.s down it to the corridor, and return through number three, which is occupied by Cattleyas and such. There is a lofty ma.s.s of rock in front, with a pool below, and a pleasant sound of splas.h.i.+ng water. Many orchids of the largest size are planted out here--Cypripedium, Cattleya, Sobralia, Phajus, Loelia, Zygopetalum, and a hundred more, "specimens," as the phrase runs--that is to say, they have ten, twenty, fifty, flower spikes. I attempt no more descriptions; to one who knows, the plain statement of fact is enough, one who does not is unable to conceive that sight by the aid of words. But the Sobralias demand attention. They stand here in clumps two feet thick, bearing a wilderness of loveliest bloom--like Irises magnified and glorified by heavenly enchantment. Nature designed a practical joke perhaps when she granted these n.o.ble flowers but one day's existence each, while dingy Epidendrums last six months, or nine. I imagine that for stateliness and delicacy combined there are no plants that excel the Sobralia. At any single point they may be surpa.s.sed--among orchids, be it understood, by nothing else in Nature's realm--but their magnificence and grace together cannot be outshone.

I must not dwell upon the marvels here, in front, on either side, and above--a hint is enough. There are baskets of _Loelia anceps_ three feet across, lifted bodily from the tree in their native forest where they had grown perhaps for centuries. One of them--the white variety, too, which aesthetic infidels might adore, though they believed in nothing--opened a hundred spikes at Christmas time; we do not concern ourselves with minute reckonings here. But an enthusiastic novice counted the flowers blooming one day on that huge ma.s.s of _Loelia albida_ yonder, and they numbered two hundred and eleven--unless, as some say, this was the quant.i.ty of "spikes," in which case one must have to multiply by two or three. Such incidents maybe taken for granted at the farm.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOELIANCEPS SCHROEDERIANA.

Reduced to One Sixth]

But we must not pa.s.s a new orchid, quite distinct and supremely beautiful, for which Professor Reichenbach has not yet found a name sufficiently appreciative. Only eight pieces were discovered, whence we must suspect that it is very rare at home; I do not know where the home is, and I should not tell if I did. Such information is more valuable than the surest tip for the Derby, or most secrets of State.

This new orchid is a Cyrrhopetalun, of very small size, but, like so many others, its flower is bigger than itself. The spike inclines almost at a right angle, and the pendent half is hung with golden bells, nearly two inches in length. Beneath it stands the very rare scarlet Utricularia, growing in the axils of its native Vriesia, as in a cup always full; but as yet the flower has been seen in Europe only by the eyes of faith. It may be news to some that Utricularias do not belong to the orchid family--have, in fact, not the slightest kins.h.i.+p, though a.s.sociated with it by growers to the degree that Mr. Sander admits them to his farm. A little story hangs to the exquisite _U. Campbelli_. All importers are haunted by the spectral image of _Cattleya l.a.b.i.ata_, which, in its true form, had been brought to Europe only once, seventy years ago, when this book was written. Some time since, Mr. Sander was looking through the drawings of Sir Robert Schomburgk, in the British Museum, among which is a most eccentric Cattleya named--for reasons beyond comprehension--a variety of _C. Mossiae_. He jumped at the conclusion that this must be the long-lost _C. l.a.b.i.ata_. So strong indeed was his confidence that he despatched a man post-haste over the Atlantic to explore the Roraima mountain; and, further, gave him strict injunctions to collect nothing but this precious species. For eight months the traveller wandered up and down among the Indians, searching forest and glade, the wooded banks of streams, the rocks and clefts, but he found neither _C. l.a.b.i.ata_ nor that curious plant which Sir Robert Schomburgk described. Upon the other hand, he came across the lovely _Utricularia Campbelli_, and in defiance of instructions brought it down. But very few reached England alive. For six weeks they travelled on men's backs, from their mountain home to the River Essequibo; thence, six weeks in canoe to Georgetown, with twenty portages; and, so aboard s.h.i.+p. The single chance of success lies in bringing them down, undisturbed, in the great clumps of moss which are their habitat, as is the Vriesia of other species.

I will allow myself a very short digression here. It may seem unaccountable that a plant of large growth, distinct flower, and characteristic appearance, should elude the eye of persons trained to such pursuits, and encouraged to spend money on the slightest prospect of success, for half a century and more. But if we recall the circ.u.mstances it ceases to astonish. I myself spent many months in the forests of Borneo, Central America, and the West African coast. After that experience I scarcely understand how such a quest, for a given object, can ever be successful unless by mere fortune. To look for a needle in a bottle of hay is a promising enterprise compared with the search for an orchid clinging to some branch high up in that green world of leaves. As a matter of fact, collectors seldom discover what they are specially charged to seek, if the district be untravelled--the natives, therefore, untrained to grasp and a.s.sist their purpose. This remark does not apply to orchids alone; not by any means. Few besides the scientific, probably, are aware that the common _Eucharis amasonica_ has been found only once; that is to say, but one consignment has ever been received in Europe, from which all our millions in cultivation have descended. Where it exists in the native state is unknown, but a.s.suredly this ignorance is n.o.body's fault. For a generation at least skilled explorers have been hunting. Mr. Sander has had his turn, and has enjoyed the satisfaction of discovering species closely allied, as _Eucharis Mastersii_ and _Eucharis Sanderiana_; but the old-fas.h.i.+oned bulb is still to seek.

In this third greenhouse is a large importation of _Cattleya Trianae_, which arrived so late last year that their sheaths have opened contemporaneously with _C. Mossiae_. I should fear to hazard a guess how many thousand flowers of each are blooming now. As the Odontoglossums cover their stage with snow wreaths, so this is decked with upright plumes of _Cattleya Trianae_, white and rose and purple in endless variety of tint, with many a streak of other hue between.

Suddenly our guide becomes excited, staring at a basket overhead beyond reach. It contains a smooth-looking object, very green and fat, which must surely be good to eat--but this observation is alike irrelevant and disrespectful. Why, yes! Beyond all possibility of doubt that is a spike issuing from the axil of its fleshy leaf! Three inches long it is already, thick as a pencil, with a big k.n.o.b of bud at the tip. Such pleasing surprises befall the orchidacean! This plant came from Borneo so many years ago that the record is lost; but the oldest servant of the farm remembers it, as a poor cripple, hanging between life and death, season after season. Cheerful as interesting is the discussion that arises. More like a Vanda than anything else, the authorities resolve, but not a Vanda! Commending it to the special care of those responsible, we pa.s.s on.

Here is the largest ma.s.s of Catasetum ever found, or even rumoured, lying in ponderous bulk upon the stage, much as it lay in a Guatemalan forest. It is engaged in the process of "plumping up." Orchids shrivel in their long journey, and it is the importer's first care to renew that smooth and wholesome rotundity which indicates a conscience untroubled, a good digestion, and an a.s.surance of capacity to fulfil any reasonable demand. Beneath the staging you may see myriads of withered sticks, clumps of shrunken and furrowed bulbs by the thousand, hung above those leaf-beds mentioned; they are "plumping" in the damp shade. The larger pile of Catasetum--there are two--may be four feet long, three wide, and eighteen inches thick; how many hundreds of flowers it will bear pa.s.ses computation. I remarked that when broken up into handsome pots it would fill a greenhouse of respectable dimensions; but it appears that there is not the least intention of dividing it. The farmer has several clients who will snap at this natural curiosity, when, in due time, it is put on the market.

At the far end of the house stands another piece of rockwork, another little cascade, and more marvels than I can touch upon. In fact, there are several which would demand all the s.p.a.ce at my disposition, but, happily, one reigns supreme. This is a _Cattleya Mossiae_, the pendant of the Catasetum, by very far the largest orchid of any kind that was ever brought to Europe. For some years Mr. Sander, so to speak, hovered round it, employing his shrewdest and most diplomatic agents. For this was not a forest specimen. It grew upon a high tree beside an Indian's hut, near Caraccas, and belonged to him as absolutely as the fruit in his compound. His great-grandfather, indeed, had "planted" it, so he declared, but this is highly improbable. The giant has embraced two stems of the tree, and covers them both so thickly that the bare ends of wood at top alone betray its secret; for it was sawn off, of course, above and below. I took the dimensions as accurately as may be, with an object so irregular and p.r.i.c.kly. It measures--the solid bulk of it, leaves not counted--as nearly as possible five feet in height and four thick--one plant, observe, pulsating through its thousand limbs from one heart; at least, I mark no spot where the circulation has been checked by accident or disease, and the pseudo-bulbs beyond have been obliged to start an independent existence.

In speaking of _Loelia elegans_, I said that those Brazilian islanders who have lost it might find solace could they see its happiness in exile. The gentle reader thought this an extravagant figure of speech, no doubt, but it is not wholly fanciful. Indians of Tropical America cherish a fine orchid to the degree that in many cases no sum, and no offer of valuables, will tempt them to part with it. Owners.h.i.+p is distinctly recognized when the specimen grows near a village. The root of this feeling, whether superst.i.tion or taste, sense of beauty, rivalry in magnificence of church displays, I have not been able to trace. It runs very strong in Costa Rica, where the influence of the aborigines is scarcely perceptible, and there, at least, the latter motive is sufficient explanation. Glorious beyond all our fancy can conceive, must be the show in those lonely forest churches, which no European visits save the "collector," on a feast day. Mr. Roezl, whose name is so familiar to botanists, left a description of the scene that time he first beheld the Flor de Majo. The church was hung with garlands of it, he says, and such emotions seized him at the view that he choked. The statement is quite credible. Those who see that wonder now, prepared for its transcendent glory, find no words to express their feeling: imagine an enthusiast beholding it for the first time, unwarned, unsuspecting that earth can show such a sample of the flowers that bloomed in Eden!

And not a single branch, but garlands of it! Mr. Roezl proceeds to speak of bouquets of _Masdevallia Harryana_ three feet across, and so forth.

The natives showed him "gardens" devoted to this species, for the ornament of their church; it was not cultivated, of course, but evidently planted. They were acres in extent.

The Indian to whom this _Cattleya Mossiae_ belonged refused to part with it at any price for years; he was overcome by a rifle of peculiar fascination, added to the previous offers. A magic-lantern has very great influence in such cases, and the collector provides himself with one or more nowadays as part of his outfit. Under that charm, with 47l. in cash, Mr. Sander secured his first _C. Mossiae alba_, but it has failed hitherto in another instance, though backed by 100l., in "trade" or dollars, at the Indian's option.

Thence we pa.s.s to a wide and lofty house which was designed for growing _Victoria Regia_ and other tropic water-lilies. It fulfilled its purpose for a time, and I never beheld those plants under circ.u.mstances so well fitted to display their beauty. But they generate a small black fly in myriads beyond belief, and so the culture of _Nymphaea_ was dropped. A few remain, in manageable quant.i.ties, just enough to adorn the tank with blue and rosy stars; but it is arched over now with baskets as thick as they will hang--Dendrobium, Coelogene, Oncidium, Spathoglottis, and those species which love to dwell in the neighbourhood of steaming water. My vocabulary is used up by this time.

The wonders here must go unchronicled.

We have viewed but four houses out of twelve, a most cursory glance at that! The next also is intermediate, filled with Cattleyas, warm Oncidiums, Lycastes, Cypripediums--the inventory of names alone would occupy all my s.p.a.ce remaining. At every step I mark some object worth a note, something that recalls, or suggests, or demands a word. But we must get along. The sixth house is cool again--Odontoglossums and such; the seventh is given to Dendrobes. But facing us as we enter stands a _Lycaste Skinneri_, which ill.u.s.trates in a manner almost startling the infinite variety of the orchid. I positively dislike this species, obtrusive, pretentious, vague in colour, and stiff in form. But what a royal glorification of it we have here!--what exquisite veining and edging of purple or rose; what a velvet lip of crimson darkening to claret! It is merely a sport of Nature, but she allows herself such glorious freaks in no other realm of her domain. And here is a new Bra.s.sia just named by the pontiff of orchidology, Professor Reichenbach.

Those who know the tribe of Bra.s.sias will understand why I make no effort to describe it. This wonderful thing is yet more "all over the shop" than its kindred. Its dorsal sepal measures three inches in length, its "tail," five inches, with an enormous lip between. They term it the Squid Flower, or Octopus, in Mexico; and a good name too. But in place of the rather weakly colouring habitual it has a grand decision of character, though the tones are like--pale yellow and greenish; its raised spots, red and deep green, are distinct as points of velvet upon muslin.

In the eighth house we return to Odontoglossums and cool genera. Here are a number of Hybrids of the "natural cla.s.s," upon which I should have a good deal to say if inexorable fate permitted; "natural hybrids" are plants which seem species, but, upon thoughtful examination and study, are suspected to be the offspring of kindred and neighbours. Interesting questions arise in surveying fine specimens side by side, in flower, all attributed to a cross between _Odontoglossum Lindleyanum_ and _Odontoglossum crispum Alexandrae_, and all quite different. But we must get on to the ninth house, from which the tenth branches.

Here is the stove, and twilight reigns over that portion where a variety of super-tropic genera are "plumping up," making roots, and generally reconciling themselves to a new start in life. Such dainty, delicate souls may well object to the apprentices.h.i.+p. It must seem very degrading to find themselves laid out upon a bed of cinders and moss, hung up by the heels above it, and even planted therein; but if they have as much good sense as some believe, they may be aware that it is all for their good. At the end, in full suns.h.i.+ne, stands a little copse of _Vanda teres_, set as closely as their stiff branches will allow. Still we must get on. There are bits of wood hanging here so rotten that they scarcely hold together; faintest dots of green upon them a.s.sure the experienced that presently they will be draped with pendant leaves, and presently again, we hope, with blue and white and scarlet flowers of Utricularia.

From the stove opens a very long, narrow house, where cool genera are "plumping," laid out on moss and potsherds; many of them have burst into strong growth. Pleiones are flowering freely as they lie. This farmer's crops come to harvest faster than he can attend to them. Things beautiful and rare and costly are measured here by the yard--so many feet of this piled up on the stage, so many of the other, from all quarters of the world, waiting the leisure of these busy agriculturists.

Nor can we spare them more than a glance. The next house is filled with Odontoglossums, planted out like "bedding stuff" in a nursery, awaiting their turn to be potted. They make a carpet so close, so green, that flowers are not required to charm the eye as it surveys the long perspective. The rest are occupied just now with cargoes of imported plants.

My pages are filled--to what poor purpose, seeing how they might have been used for such a theme, no one could be so conscious as I.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 8: I was too sanguine. _Vanda teres_ refused to thrive.]

ORCHIDS AND HYBRIDIZING.

In the very first place, I declare that this is no scientific chapter.

It is addressed to the thousands of men and women in the realm who tend a little group of orchids lovingly, and mark the wonders of their structure with as much bewilderment as interest. They read of hybridization, they see the result in costly specimens, they get books, they study papers on the subject. But the deeper their research commonly, the more they become convinced that these mysteries lie beyond their attainment. I am not aware of any treatise which makes a serious effort to teach the uninitiated. Putting technical expressions on one side--though that obstacle is grave enough--every one of those which have come under my notice takes the mechanical preliminaries for granted. All are written by experts for experts. My purpose is contrary.

I wish to show how it is done so clearly that a child or the dullest gardener may be able to perform the operations--so very easy when you know how to set to work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CYPRIPEDIUM (HYBRIDUM) POLLETTIANUM.

Reduced to One Sixth.]

After a single lesson, in the genus _Cypripedium_ alone, a young lady of my household amused herself by concerting the most incredible alliances--_Dendrobium_ with _Odontoglossum_, _Epidendrum_ with _Oncidium_, _Oncidium_ with _Odontoglossum_, and so forth. It is unnecessary to tell the experienced that in every case the seed vessel swelled; that matter will be referred to presently. I mention the incident only to show how simple are these processes if the key be grasped.

Amateur hybridizers of an audacious cla.s.s are wanted because, hitherto, operators have kept so much to the beaten paths. The names of Veitch and Dominy and Seden will endure when those of great _savants_ are forgotten; but business men have been obliged to concentrate their zeal upon experiments that pay. Fantastic crosses mean, in all probability, a waste of time, s.p.a.ce, and labour; in fact, it is not until recent years that such attempts could be regarded as serious. So much the more creditable, therefore, are Messrs. Veitch's exertions in that line.

But it seems likely to me that when hybridizing becomes a common pursuit with those who grow orchids--and the time approaches fast--a very strange revolution may follow. It will appear, as I think, that the enormous list of pure species--even genera--recognized at this date may be thinned in a surprising fas.h.i.+on. I believe--timidly, as becomes the unscientific--that many distinctions which anatomy recognizes at present as essential to a true species will be proved, in the future, to result from promiscuous hybridization through aeons of time. "Proved," perhaps, is the word too strong, since human life is short; but such a ma.s.s 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 fas.h.i.+on, 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.