1920 
* ONCIDIUM crispum. 
Curled-flowered Oncidium. 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 
Nat. ord. ORCHIDACER, $ VANDEA. 
ONCIDIUM. Suprà, vol. 13. fol. 1050. 
A$1.a.* Gen. et Sp. Orch. 197. 
O. crispum; pseudobulbis oblongis sulcatis rugosis diphyllis, foliis lanceolatis coriaceis 
acutis, scapo simplici multifloro, sepalis (obovatis) recurvis undulatis obtusis laterali- 
bus semiconnatis, petalis duplò majoribus subrotundis undulatis unguiculatis, labelli 
lobis Jateralibus cornuformibus recurvis nanis intermedio maximo unguiculato sub- 
rotundo cordato undulato, cristà subhastatà acuminatà tuberculis subuniserialibus 
cireumdatá, columnz alis rotundatis denticulatis carnosis. 
O. no Lodd. Bot. cab. t. 1854. Gen. et Sp. Orch. 197. Hooker in Bot. Mag. 
t. 
The first notice 1 had of the existence of this species was the finding, 
in the Herbarium of Sir William Hooker,'a drawing and one single dried 
flower of it, which had been sent from the Organ Mountains in Brazil, 
with a memorandum that from fifty to sixty flowers frequently grow on 
a stalk. A small specimen of it shortly after flowered with Messrs. 
Loddiges, and it has subsequently blossomed in many collections, but 
never with the vigour that it possesses in its wild state. 
Even as we know it, it is a stately, noble looking object, with its very 
large deep chesnut flowers; but if it can be brought to its full degree of 
vigour, we shall have little in its tribe that can vie with it in appearance, 
The plant that furnished the accompanying drawing ETT in the hot- 
house of Richard Harrison, Esq., Liverpool, in May 1836. 
The genus Oncidium is one of the most distinct in the whole of the 
extensive natural order to which it belongs, and in generalit is easily 
enough determined; but even here, as in all such cases, there are species 
that do not exactly belong to it, or to any other genus. Some instances of 
these I shall give in the next number of the Register; for the present I 
confine myself to the genuine and certain species. These, which abound 
in the tropical parts of” America, extend also so far into colder regions, 
that one species, O. nubigenum, occurs on the mountains of Peru, at the 
height of 14,000 feet above the sea, where the air must nearly freeze. A 
large number of them occur in our gardens ; of these many are among 
the older inhabitants of stoves, others are of such recent introduction as 
hardly yet to be known even by name; among the last are more particu- 
larly to be named the lovely rose-coloured O. ornithorhynchum from 
Mexico, and a beautiful little species, O. lunatum, a native of Demerara. 
The genus Oncidium will not however be seen in all its glory till we pos- 
sess O. tigrinum from Mexico, O. pictum from Peru, and O. macranthum 
from Guayaquil. The first and last of these equal O. crispum in the size of 
their flowers: the other is probably the finest of the yellow species. 
I am acquainted with the following in addition to those already 
published. 
f A.S$ 1. a." 
1. O. maculosum ; lobulbis ova compressis, foliis lanceolatis acutis, seapo stricto 
maculoso mal dar + TS sepalis pu wn acutis reflexis lateralibus basi connatis, 
| petalis oblongis obtusis, labello maximo basi pubescente obsolete quadrilobo reni- 
formi: laciniis lateralibus minimis auriculeeformibus, eristà oblongà e tuberculis 
pluribus digitiformibus constante, columns alis inferioribus truncatis superioribus 
falcatis integerrimis majoribus.—— Brazil, von Martius.——A fine species in the way 
of Oncidium bifolium. $ 
2. O. varicosum ; pseudobulbis oblongis subtetragonis diphyllis, foliis rigidis spathulato- 
lanceolatis scapo gracili pyramidali subsimpliciter racemoso ter brevioribus, floribus 
* See folio 1542. 
VOL. XXIII. B 
