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_ 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.
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