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 x Cyp. longiflorum_; curious as the single
instance yet noted in which seedlings turn out identical, whichever
parent furnish the pollen-masses. 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.
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