248 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



matured leaf is of a reddish brown sometimes greenish brown 

 colour, drooping, much branched and racemose. 



The flowers borne in clusters on the various branches are 

 small, perhaps about an inch in diameter, sepals, petals and lip of 

 an olive green sometimes of a brownish green colour, mottled 

 with a darker shade of brown, the column and tubercular process 

 being of a pink white colour with a slight touch of yellow. 



There are very many varieties of this great old orchid and 

 in the more desirable ones the spikes are about five to six feet in 

 length, proportionately broad, and bearing hundreds of the small 

 but curious flowers in clusters on the several branches of thespike. 



This orchid grows very well in or on anything : in fact it is 

 very hardy indeed, but it must be treated like 0. lanceanum to 

 grow it to perfection. 



When grown on a living tree in a favourable situation it 

 often goes to seed and in a few years will cover the adjacent 

 limbs of its support with its seedlings. 



On account of its being found nearly everywhere in this 

 Island it is undeservedly despised, and it is looked down upon by 

 many, but to the true lover of flowers it is a very charming 

 species, and a well grown plant with its flowers and spikes in 

 full bloom is really an object of admiration. 



Small ants are very fond of visiting the flowers which 

 possess a peculiar aromatic odour. 



Before leaving the bulbless (Jncids it is necessary to notice 

 the rare and most beautiful Oncidium hcematochilum which has 

 hitherto been considered a distinct species, but which certainly 

 bears out the idea that it is a natural hybrid or cross between 

 the two orchids last described. In a letter to the Orchid 

 Review of No. 30, 1895, I gave my reasons for thinking that 

 this native was a natural hybrid and the Editor of that Journal 

 seemed to think that I was right (vide Orchid Revieiv 1895). 



This extremely rare orchid is a native of Trinidad, possibly 

 it may occur in Venezuela and British Guiana also, in fact 

 wherever 0. lanceanum and 0. luridum grow near to one another. 

 It has, however, not yet been recorded from any part of the 

 Island but Cedros, where 0. lanceanum also only occurs and 

 where 0. luridum is often found growing upon the same bough 

 and sometimes entangled with the former orchid. 



The parent plants flower about the same time of the year. 

 They are visited by the same insects. There are two distinct 

 kinds of hcematochilum. 



It was these facts which led me to believe that 0. 

 hcematochilum, a bulbless Oncid with leathery green, and brown 

 spotted leaves sometimes like those of 0. luridum and at other 

 times resembling those of 0. lanceamim, with a reddish brown 

 spike of medium length somewhat drooping, bearing a considerable 



