Platb XLV11I. 



ONCIDIUM BARKER!. 





Oncidium Barken* Limlley h Botanical Register for 1841, no. 174 of the 



Miscellaneous matter. 



Of the great genus Oncidium must »f the specie* have flowers sufficiently Urge and gaily 

 eolourcd to render them plants of striking beauty : bat among them are a few pre-eminent in this 

 respect, and of lhc*e the species now figun d may be regarded as one of the finest* In the sisc of 

 the (lowers it is only equalled by O. Papilio, Inslcayi, and a few Peruvian specie* ; in the brilliancy 

 of the yellow lip it is not inferior to 0, bifolium, while the rich spotting of the sepal* and petals is 

 only equalled by O. Papilio itself, 



At present the species is of the rarest occurrence, having only flowered in the collections of 

 Mr. Barker, who imported it from Mexico, and of Mrs. Lawrence of Ealing Parle, 



It* rst:vr>o-m?uis arc exactly oval, compressed, blunt-edged, with a furrow or two passing down 

 each side. The leaves are small for the size of the plant, two to each pscudodmlb, of an oblong- 

 lanceolate form, with a long sheathing striated footstalk, which is distinctly articulated in the middle 

 The scape it* terminal, a very unusual circumstance in Oncidium, with about three sheath* on the 

 part which supports the flowers. The jitter are disposed in a simple curved RACEME, and arc 

 from five to seven in number* The SBPAU and PETAU are alike in form and colour, linear-lanceolate, 

 w ary f spreading or turned back: the lateral very slightly adhering at the base; they are covered 

 with deep rich brown spots and bands on a pale cinnamon -coloured ground. The MP is pun* yellow, 

 without a single spot, much paler on the under side, and longer than the sepals ; its middle lobe is 

 very large, broader than long, slightly pointed at the apex, which nevertheless curves inwards in the 

 manner usual in this genus ; it is distinctly stalked ; the lateral lobes are flat, oblong, truncated with 

 rounded angles, and not more than a third the breadth of the middle lobe* The CREST (fig- J.) 

 consists of an anterior tubercle, which is slightly threcdohed and hollowed out in front, and of a 

 depressed iwodobed elevation immediately behind it. The column is unusually short, pale yellow, 

 with a pair of rounded oblong wings. 



At Plate XXV, of this work an attempt having been made to distinguish on more satisfactory 

 grounds than before the genera Cyrtochilum and Oncidium, I now fi^l bound tu state that the 

 examination of more specie*, and a very full revision of these and the neighbouring genera, ha* 

 satisfied me that the reasons assigned in the place referred to are unsatisfactory, and that Cyrtochilum 

 cannot lie longer regarded as having a claim to stand as more thn nn artificial section of Oncidium, 

 h trill be remembered that ihi* genu* was established by Messrs, Humboldt and Kunth. in their 

 Nova Genera et Specie* Plimliirum, upon two species wilh stalked petals and an undivided lip, 

 character* certainly very striking in several Peruvian and other specie*. But there are so many 

 insensible gradations by which the form of the petals and labelluiu varies in the numerous forms of 

 Oncidium* that those distinctions cannot be maintained, and all others substituted in lieu of them 

 have equally failed when applied to practice. In the attempt, too, to modify the character of Cyrto- 

 chilum, specie* have been introduced which would be more properly stationed elsewhere : these are 







