FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 245 



mature generally produce one, and sometimes two flower spikes 

 which are often more vigorous than those produced by plants 

 grown on blocks. 



The flowers of 0. ampliatum are visited by a number of 

 yellow bodied wasps (Polistes sp) which with the co-operation of 

 a small ant seem to affect the fertilisation of the flowers, as this 

 Oncidium goes to seed very readi'y, and can be easily propagated 

 from its seeds. The writer has two nice little plants raised from 

 seeds sown naturally from an older plant in his possession. One 

 of these seedlings will bloom next year for the first time. 



To those who have the patience necessary to take an interest 

 in raising orchids from seed, a method which requires much of 

 this virtue and of care, the writer recommends the top of an 

 orchid basket or pot, the top of an old block, preferably of 

 Calabash wood, or the rough bark of a living tree as a suitable 

 place for sowing the very fine seeds. Some time, perhaps weeks 

 and months will elapse before the seedling makes its appearance 

 but once it has taken a start it will, with ordinary care, soon 

 grow into a fine little plant and in three or four years will reward 

 its cultivator with its first bloom. 



The next Oncidium with which I propose to deal is the well 

 known, beautiful, and much desired Oncidium lanceanum or 

 " Cedros Bee." 



This orchid has not yet been recorded from any other part 

 of the Island but the South western extremity known as the 

 Cedros Ward, but it is also a native of Venezuela and 

 British Guiana, which countries can boast of all our native species 

 and many more besides. 



This Oncidium belongs to the section which makes no 

 pseudo bulbs, the large, thick, somewhat oval acute green leaves 

 spring from a short knotty rootstock, which throws out a vast 

 number of cordlike roots greyish white with an orange coloured 

 growing point ; the leaves when exposed to sunlight are much 

 spotted with brown and from the base of the new leaf there 

 springs a raceme spike bearing a number of beautiful and 

 sweetly scented flowers of which the sepals and petals are pale 

 olive green thickly blotched or spotted with reddish brown the 

 broad somewhat spathulate lip being of lovely violet purple at its 

 extremity (more or less intense according to the variety) and 

 gradually shading off to a deeper purple at the base. The column 

 and tubercles are of a purple shade also. 



The flowers measure about 2 inches in diameter when fully 

 espanded, though in some varieties I have found flowers which 

 measured two and a half inches across. 



Although found only in one quarter of the Island, this 

 orchid flourishes everywhere else under cultivation, but to grow 

 it to perfection it should be put in a wooden basket. I have 



