ONCIDIUM. 77 



A native of the eastern Cordillera of New Granada near Ocaiia, 

 where it was detected by Linden in 1842 at 3,000— 1,000 feet 

 elevation,* and where some years later it was gathered by Schlim, 

 by whom probably it was introduced into European gardens; it was 

 first cultivated in this countiy by Mr. Brocklehurst, of The Fence, 

 near Macclesfield. The tiowers of this Oncid are brightly coloured 

 and produced in great profusion ; the curious column wings and 

 beaked anther well distinguish the species. We are indebted to 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew for materials for description. 



On. serratum 



Pseudo-bulbs ovoid, compressed, 4—5 inches long, diphyllous. Leaves 

 narrowly lanceolate, 9 — 15 or more inches long. Scapes flexuose, 

 5 — 7 or more feet long, distantly branched, many flowered. Flowers 

 3 inches across vertically, on pedicels 2 inches long, sheathed at their 

 base by an ovatedanceolate pale bract about | inch long; sepals 

 clawed, the dorsal one sub-orbicular, crisped at the margin, chestnut- 

 brown with a narrow yellow border ; the lateral two ovate-oblong, 

 deflexed and then curving upwards and sideways like a saddle ; petals 

 like the lateral sepals but shorter, more crisped, and indented at the 

 apex, chestnut-brown to two-thirds of their length, the apical third 

 bright yellow ; lip much smaller than the other segments, linear-spathulate, 

 reflexed with two small hatchet-shaped basal lobes, purplish brown ; 

 crest a central white projecting plate with two acute teeth in front 

 and a notched plate on each side. Column wings dagger-shaped, 

 ascending, red-brown. 



Oncidium serratum, Lindl. Sert. Orch. sub. t. 48 (1838). Id. Paxt. Fl. Gard. II. 

 p. 126, with fig. Id. Fol. Orch. Oncid. No. 6. Gard. Chron. 1850, p. 279, with fic^' 

 Bot. Mag. t. 5632. 



This singular Oncid was first made known to science by Matthews, 



who sent a rude copy of an old Spanish drawing from Peru 



(Ecuador?) to Sir W. J. Hooker, at Kew, about the year 1838. 



It was first cultivated in Europe by M. Pescatore, of La Celle, 



St. Cloud near Paris, who sent the flower to Dr. Lindley in 1850, 



from which the woodcut in Paxton^s Floiver Garden was taken. It 



has since been occasionally imported from the Andes of Ecuador. 



The flowers are of remarkable form and very diflicult to describe; 



when first open the petals cling together by the interlocking of 



their crispatiou, so that they cannot be easily separated. 



* It is stated in the Gardeners' Chronicle, AT. s. 3 (1889), p. 42, that Oncidiinn Schlimii has 

 been imported by Messrs Cliarlesworth and Shuttleworth in a batch of Odoriloglonsuvi cirrosum 

 that is to say, 800 — 1,000 miles distant I'rom the Ocaua locality. 



