10 



ONClDIUM ornithorhynchum. 

 Bird-billed Oncidiiim. 



GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 

 Nat. ord. Orchidace^, § Vande^. 

 ONCIDIUM. Botanical Register, vol. 13. fol. 1050. 



0. ornithoi'hynchum; pseudobulbis ovatis diphyllis, foliis ensiformibus recurvis 

 scapo paniculato brevioribus, sepalis lineari-oblongis imdulatis reflexis 

 omiiino liberis, labelli panduriformis lobis lateralibus acutis intermedio 

 bilobo, crista e lamellis 5 crenatis apice rostratis constantCj columnse alls 

 cuneatis dentatis, stigmate longi-rostrato. 



O. ornithorhynchum. Humboldt, Botipland, ^ Kunth. Nov. gen. et sp. plant. 

 I. 345. t. 80. Genera ^ Species Orchid. 204. Bateman Orchid. Mex. 

 et Guatemal. t. 4. 



0. roseum. Hoi't. 



This beautiful epiphyte was originally found by Humboldt 

 and Bonpland in the temperate parts of Mexico, near El 

 Puerto de Andaracuas, between the towns of Guanaxato and 

 Valladolid de Mechoacan, on mountains, at the elevation of 

 6,000 feet above the sea, flowering in September. It has 

 also been met with by Mr. Hartweg, at a place called Llano 

 Verde, loaded, in the month of July, with larger and finer 

 flowers than I have yet seen in our garden specimens. 

 Mr. Skinner again found it in Guatemala, and sent it to 

 Mr. Bateman, who published the first figure from living 

 plants in his magnificent work on the Orchidacece of Mexico 

 and Guatemala, t. 4. 



In their natural state the panicles of rosy flowers are 

 pendulous, and extremely ornamental ; their beauty is much 

 impaired when they are tied up to a stake, and so forced into 

 a position alien to their habits. They have an agreeable 

 odour, which Mr. Bateman compares with justice to new hay. 



In this species we have another instance to add to those 

 of O. Hussellianum, Lanceammii and pulchellum of violet 

 flowers in a genus so very generally yellow. In the coloured 



