16 ONCIDIUM. 



not necessarily collected at Rio,* among which was an Oucidiuni 

 resembling Oncidium sarcodes, but which upon flowering proved to be 

 a very different species. In 1885 it was awarded a First Class Certificate 

 by the Royal Horticultural Society, and in February of the following 

 year it again flowered in Mr. Lemon's collection, producing a densely 

 branched panicle of upwards of 150 flowers. The main plant then 

 passed into Baron Schroeder's collection at The Dell, a piece taken 

 from it remaining with Mr. Lemon, f Sir Trevor Lawrence also has a 

 plant of this rare Oncidium, and so far as we know, the three mentioned 

 comprise the whole of it in England at the present day."| 

 Since the publication of the foregoing extract the horticultural 



history of Oncidium Brunleesiamim has remained materially the same. 



We have been informed, however, that two plants have been recently 



imported from Rio de Janeiro, one of which was sent to America. 

 The species is doubtless an extremely rare one in its native 



country. We are indebted to Baron Schroeder for materials for 



description. 



On. caesium. 



Pseudo-bulbs clustered, sub-globose or broadly ovoid, 1 — \\ inches in 

 diameter, of a peculiar olive tint, diphyllous. Leaves linear, acute, 

 6 — 7 inches long. Peduncles slender, erect, longer than the leaves, pale 

 green mottled with dull crimson, usually terminating in a five-flowered, 

 lax raceme. Flowers 1^ inches across vertically; sepals and petals 

 greenish tinged with rose, shortly clawed, oval-oblong, the dorsal sepal 

 the broadest, reflexed and with a green keel behind ; lip bright canary- 

 yellow, three-lobed, the basal lobes obliquely sub-quadrate with reflexed 

 margins, the front lobe broadly clawed, transversely oblong with a deep 

 cleft in the anterior margin ; crest nearly circular in outline, obscurely 

 five-toothed. Column wings hatchet shaped, spreading. 



Oncidium csesium, Rchb. in Kegel's Gartenfi. 1854, t. 80. Id. Xen. Orch. I. 

 p. 94, t. 36, fig. 2. Lindl. in Gard. Chron. 1854, p. 219. Id. Fol. Orch. Oncid. 

 No. 159. 



First cultivated in Herr Hofrath Keil's garden at Leipsig in 



1853, and although it has since appeared at intervals in a few 



other orchid collections, its origin is unknown to science. Its 



nearest affinity is the better-known Oncidium refiexuin, from which 



it is easily distinguished by its peculiarly coloured pseudo-bulbs, 



and the differently shaped auricles of the labellum. Our description 



* In Williams' Orchid Album, sub. t. 206, it is stated to be "a native of La Plata, having 

 been gathered with a batch of Oncidium varicosum on the Eio de la Plata," but the statement 

 does not appear to us to be supportt-d by sufficient evidence. 



t This has since passed into the collection at The Dell. 



+ 1. s. 3. (1887), p. 672. 



