28 



ONCIDIUM. 



grow on a stalk. A small specimen of it shortly after flowered with 



Messrs. Loddiges, and it has subsequently blossomed in many collections, 



but never with the vigour that it possesses in the wild state." * 



Among the earliest cultivators of Oncidium crispum were Mrs. 



Horsfall and Mr. Richard Harrison, of Liverpool, whose commercial 



relations with Rio de Janeiro offered facilities for obtaining many 



of the finest orchids found in its neighbourhood, of some of 



which they were the first introducers. Since their time this beautiful 



Oncid has been imported by thousands, but only to display its 



Oncidium crispum. 



splendid inflorescence for a very few times, and, perhaps, in 

 numerous cases, only once, and then to perish, so intractable has 

 it hitherto proved under cultivation. As stated in the above 

 description the flowers vary in size and colour, the most distinct 

 deviation known to us in the last named character being the sub- 

 variety Jiavum, in which the flowers are deep yellow with the central 

 area of each segment paler. 



* Bot. Reg. sub. t. 1920. The inferior flowers Dr. Lindley here complains of might have 

 resulted from the exhaustion of the plants during transit, which at that period occupied three 

 times as long as at present. 



