14 



ONCroiUM. 



On. bifolium. 



Pseudo-bulbs ovoid, about the size of a walnut diphyllous. Leaves linear- 

 oblong, acute, 3 — 5 inches long. Scapes slender, glaucous, about a foot long, 

 loosely racemose, 7 — 10 or more flowered. Flowers 1^ inches across 

 vertically ; sepals and petals small, oblong, iindulate, yellow barred and 

 spotted with red-brown, the two lateral sepals connate to the middle, 

 and with acuminate, recurved tips ; lip clawed, broadly transversely 

 oblong witli a sinus in the anterior margin, bright yellow ; the claw 

 with two small auricles and a crest consisting of four lamellae, of 

 which the posterior one is broad and tuberculated, the lateral two 

 shallow and toothed, and the anterior one the most projected and 

 having two small divergent teeth in front of it. Column wings 

 narrow, 



Oncidium bifolium, Sims in Boi. Mag. t. 1491 (1812). Lodciiges, Bot. Cab. t. 

 1845. Lindl. Gen. et. Sp. Orch. p. 197. Id. Fol. Orch. Oncid. No. 73. 



A somewhat diminutive but very attractive species that was first 

 sent to Messi'S. Loddiges^ in 1812^ by a gentleman 

 who brought it from Montevideo ; it is thence 

 one of the earliest of the Oncids cultivated in 

 this country. Its geographical position is note- 

 worthy on account of its being one of the two ^^ 

 most southern species of Oncidium known^ the fip- 

 otlier being Oncidium vijperinurri', although its \^^/Jl 

 precise locality has not been indicated, it is known 

 to inhabit the bills in the neighbourhood of 

 Montevideo, whence it is occasionally imported. 



Oncidium bifolium. 



On. bracteatum. 



Pseudo-bulbs oval-oblong, much compressed, 3 inches long and 1^ 



inches broad, diphyllous, the two leaves linear-ligulate, usually if not 



always of rmequal length, 8 — 12 inches long and an inch broad. Scapes 



3 — 4 feet long, scabrous, the nodes 2 — 3 inches apart, at each of 



which is an acute pale brown spathaceous bract and a similar smaller 



one at the base of each pedicel, panicled towards the extremity, the 



branches short, 2 — 3 flowered. Flowers an inch across vertically ; 



sepals and petals bright yellow-green densely spotted with blackish 



purple, the dorsal sepal and petals linear-oblong, acute, the lateral sepals 



longer and narrower, prominently keeled behind ; lip broadly clawed 



with two minute basal auricles and a transversely oblong emarginate 



blade ; claw red-brown, blade and auricles light yellow, white beneath ; 



crest bluntly conical. Column wings very narrow. 



Oncidium bracteatum, Rchb. in Bot. Zeit. 1852, p. 695. Id. in Walp. Ann. VI. 

 p. 786. Lindl. Fol. Orch. Oncid. No. 139, 



