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 astonishing "record"
would be grotesque. One Sunday afternoon, ten years ago, he amused
himself with investigating the structure of a few Cypripeds, after
reading Darwin's book; and he impregnated them. To his astonishment the
seed-vessel began to swell, and so did Mr. Cookson's enthusiasm
simultaneously. He did not yet know, and, happily, these experiments
gave him no reason to suspect, that pseudo-fertilization can be
produced, actually, by anything. So intensely susceptible is the
stigmatic surface of the Cypriped that a touch excites it furiously.
Upon the irritation caused by a bit of leaf, it will go sometimes
through all the visible processes of fecundation, the ovary will swell
and ripen, and in due time burst, with every appearance of fertility;
but, of course, there is no seed. Beginners, therefore, must not be too
sanguine when their bold attempts promise well.
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