re: ?? about wide cross i.e. SIBxJAP


        I have found a lot of good information on this topic in old issues of 
SIGNA the species iris group newsletter. "Wide crosses" are frequently discussed
as well as various laboratory methods of nursing an embryo along to become a 
seedling (when the original could not form a viable endosperm etc.) Many 
citations are made from 1890's to present concerning various attempts to make 
hybrids etc. Dykes himself describes which species are interfertile and which 
are not and his writings are today mostly still correct on the matter.

        The overall impression I got from the sources I have read is that if a 
species or hybrid has been known to horticulture for any period of time, then 
numerous individuals have tried it in breeding programs. Only using modern lab 
techniques can today's hybridizer improve on the results of those before them. 
Even when such breakthroughs are made, either by luck or through extreme 
diligence the number of viable offspring is very low, and almost always prove to
be infertile. 

        After reading up, and I have a lot more to do !, I can see why people 
are skeptical of any "new hybrids" using iris which have been around for half 
the century.

                Chad Schroter in Los Gatos CA
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