ONCIDIUM. »c5 



18 — 24 iiiclies long, sometimes racemed, oftener panicled, the branches 

 zigzag and few flowered. Flowers f inch in diameter, bright canary- 

 yellow with 1 — 2 red-brown bars on each segment; sepals linear- 

 oblong, acute, the lateral two free ; petals broader, oval-oblong ; lip 

 with two rounded basal lobes and a transversely oblong deeply 

 emarginate blade ; crest a nearly circular disk with many tubercles, 

 those at the circumference tooth-like. Column wings bipartite, the 

 lower halves spreading, the upper halves prolonged and meeting above 

 the anther. 



Oncidium tectum, Rchb. in Gard. Chrou. HI. (1875), p. 780. 

 A species now rarely seen in other than Botanic gardens, intro- 

 duced by us from New Granada, in 1874, through Gustav Wallis, 

 who did not give the locality of this or indeed of any of his 

 discoveries. The zigzag growth of the branches of the inflorescence is 

 here more conspicuous than in any other Oncidium known to us. 

 The applicability of the specific name is obscure. 



On. tetrapetalum. 



Pseudo-bulbs none. Leaves in tufts of 4 — 5 or more from a 

 creeiDing rhizome, fleshy, triquetral -with acute edges, equitant at the 

 base, channelled on one side, 3 — 6 inches long. Scapes erect, dark 

 purple, 18 — 24 inches high, racemose, or sparingly branched, many 

 flowered. Flowers an inch across vertically ; sepals and petals clawed, 

 broadly oblong, sub-acute, undulate, keeled behind, the lateral sepals 

 connate and concealed by the lip, bright cliestnut-red barred and 

 marked with yellow ; lip broadly clawed, with two horn-like basal 

 auricles and a transversely reniform, emarginate blade, white with a 

 red blotch in front of the crest, which consists of seven tubercles, 

 three in front and four in two pairs behind, all pointing forwards. 

 Column wings somewhat scimitar-shaped, pale rose dotted with yellow. 



Oncidium tetrapetalum, Wild. Sp. Plant. IV. p. 112, ex. Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. 

 p. 198 (1832). Lindl. Fol. Orch. Oncid. No. 36. On. pauciflorum, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. 

 Orch. p. 198. On. tricolor, Hook. £ot. Mag. t. 4130 (1844). On. quadripetalum, 

 Sw. in K. Vet. Acad. Stockh. Nya. Handl. XXL p. 240* (1800). 



A very pretty species that was known to science in the last 



century, and which during the last sixty years has been frequently 



introduced into British gardens, but like most of the equitant 



Oncids has proved a refractory subject under cultivation. It is a 



native of the West Indies and adjacent countries on the American 



continent, Jamaica, Dominica, Mexico, Cumana (Venezuela) being 



* This is therefore the oldest name of this species, but being a mongvel word, half Latin, 

 half Greek, it was rejected by the older botanists. 



