ONCIDIUM. 71 



Oiicidium prmtextum has been occasioually confused with On, curiam, 

 to which it is nearly allied, but from which it may be distinguished 

 by its different crest, by its narrower lateral sepals which are connate 

 at the base only, and sometimes by its smaller flowers which are 

 usually of a duller colour. The specific name refers to the brown 

 marginal band of the lip, and was suggested by a similar ornament 

 on the Roman toga. 



On. pubes. 



Pseudo-bulbs sub-cylindric, tapering, 2 — 2^ inches long, diphyllous. 



Leaves narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 3 — 5 inches long. Scapes 15 — 24 



inches long, panicled, the branches distichous and alternate, gradually 



shorter upwards ; bracts small, subulate. Flowers about an inch in 



diameter, variable in colour, red-brown barred and spotted with yellow ; 



dorsal sepal and petals clawed, obovate, obtuse, incurved ; lateral sepals 



connate into an oblong blade, bifid at the apex ; lip three-lobed, the side 



lobes linear, reflexed, the intermediate lobe broadly obovate, emarginate, 



red-brown bordered with yellow ; crest tuberculose, pubescent, toothed in 



front. Column wings oblong, sub-falcate, obtuse. 



Oncidium pubes, Lindl. in Bot. Reg. t. 1007 (1826). Id. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 199 

 (1832). Id. Fol. Orch. Oncid. No. 70 (1855). Bot. Mag. t. 3926 (flavescens). 

 On. bicornutum, Bot. Mag. t. 3109 (1831). 



A species of somewhat singular aspect, originally discovered by 



Descourtilz in the forests near Bananal, in the Brazilian province of 



Minas Geraes.* It was introduced by the Horticultural Society of 



London, in 1824, through David Douglas, who brought it from 



Rio de Janeiro. Seven years later it was sent to Mrs. Arnold 



Harrison, of Aigburth, near Liverpool, by Mr. William Harrison, 



who had gathered it in woods 60 miles inland from Rio ; it 



was afterwards found by Gardner and by Miers on the Organ 



Mountains ; it is doubtless dispersed over a considerable area in 



southern Brazil. The specific name refers to tho soft villous hairs 



around the margin of the stigma. 



On. pnlchellum. 



Pseudo-bulbs none. Leaves radical, usually in pairs or in fours, 

 equitant, linear-lanceolate, 3 — 5 or more inches long, acutely keeled 

 behind. Scapes slender, erect, 12 — 15 inches high, racemose or loosely 

 paniculate, 12 — 20 or more flowered. Flowers an inch across vertically, 

 white with a flush of rose on all the segments ; dorsal sepal ovate, 



* Ex Lindl. Fol. Orch. Oncid. No. 70. 



