500 



Garden and Forest. 



[October i6, 1889. 



cluinneled on the upper side, especially towanls the sheathing" 

 l)ase. About midway on the stem, the erect dull durple pe- 

 duncle springs from the axil of a leaf ; it is about a foot long, 

 the upper portion being llexuose, and bearing eight flowers, 

 which present a very charming appearance. They vary from 

 one and a half to over two inches across, the lower ones being 

 somewhat larger than those above them. The individual 

 flowers are borne on pinkish-white pedicels, about two and a 

 half inches long including the ovary, and have sepals and 

 petals of a delicate 

 white color, faintly 

 suffused with rose 

 in the centre. They 

 are all suddenly 

 twisted at the base 

 — a characteristic of 

 several species of 

 Vanda. The oblong- 

 elliptic subacute 

 upper sepals and 

 petals are nearly 

 similar, while the 

 two lower oblong- 

 falcate sepals are 

 much larger. The 

 deep crimson-pur- 

 ple' lip presents a 

 very striking con- 

 trast to the color of 

 the sepals and pet- 

 als ; it is more or 

 less suborbicular 

 and emarginate, 

 with undulate den- 

 ticulate edges, while 

 on each side of the 

 opening into the 

 slisfhtly bent, taper- 

 ing, pinky spur, is 

 an obovate, blimtly- 

 hookedauricle, dull 

 orange outside, and 

 thickly spotted with 

 purple inside. 



Although Vanda 

 Kiviballiana cannot 

 be said to present 

 a robust appear- 

 ance, owing- to its 

 slender cylindrical 

 stems and leaves, 

 nevertheless there 

 is at present every 

 reason to believe 

 that it will be much 

 more easily grown 

 and produce its 

 flowers in greater 

 abundance than 

 some of the species 

 which belong to the 

 same section. Un- 

 fortunate as it is for 

 cultural purposes 

 not to know the na- 

 tive country of this 

 species, it may be 

 assumed that its 

 home is somewhere 

 in the eastern trop- 

 ics, whence come 

 the remainder of its 

 congeners, and that 

 it must, therefore, 

 be grown in a warm, 

 moist atmosjihere, in such a position as to obtain as much sun- 

 light as possible. The jjlants may be grown in clean crocks and 

 charcoal, which should have a layer of fresh sphagnum moss 

 on top, and in spring and summer they may be syringed a 

 couple of times a day, to keep theni moist, but' not too wet. 



Oncidhini splcndidttiii. — The earliest knowledge we have of 

 this fine Oncidium is from Richards' herbarium, where there 

 is a dried specimen, collected in Guatemala in 1852, presum- 

 ably by M. Herment. It was not, however, until some ten 

 years later that this collector, who was then living at 



Fis;- 136. — Tlie Bur Oak {Quercus iiiaci-ocarpa). — See page 497 



Caen, France, succeeded in getting a few plants alive to 

 Europe, and these passed from his possession into that of 

 1\IM. Thibaut and Keteleer, nurserymen, of Paris, in whose es- 

 tablishment a plant flowered for the first time in January, 1862. 

 All the plants in cultivation at that time were distributed 

 among continental collections, each plant realizing a very high 

 price, and it was nearly eight or nine years after its actual in- 

 troduction before Oncidium splendiduin made its appearance 

 in England. Until within the last few years it remained 



\'ery scarce, but now 

 that large importa- 

 tions, chiefly from 

 n u ate mala, have 

 Ijeen received, its 

 l)rice has been con- 

 siderably reduced, 

 and specimens of it 

 are consequently 

 much more fre- 

 quently n>et with 

 than they formerlv 

 were. 



The chief charac- 

 teristics of this spe- 

 cies are its ovoid 

 compressed pseu- 

 do-bulbs, each of 

 which bears a sin- 

 gle, very fleshy, dull 

 green leaf at the 

 summit, while a 

 branched scape, 

 from two to four 

 and a half feet long, 

 springs from the 

 base, generally 

 bearingfrom fifteen 

 to twenty large, 

 handsome flowers, 

 the oblong, recurv- 

 ed sepals and petals 

 of which are more 

 or less of a yellow- 

 ish -green, trans- 

 versely barred with 

 large, rich brown 

 blotches, while the 

 broad, Hattish lip, of- 

 ten quite two inch- 

 es across, is of a 

 bright yellow, with 

 one or two reddish- 

 brown blotches at 

 the base, on each 

 side of the three- 

 keeled disc. 



As a rule, Oncidi- 

 lun splendiduni pro- 

 duces its flowers at 

 a season of the year 

 when they are most 

 acceptable, namely, 

 during the gloomy 

 months of Decem- 

 ber, January and 

 February. I might, 

 however, mention 

 that an im ported 

 jjiece here began 

 to bloom at the jje- 

 ginning of August, 

 and has now been 

 in flower nearly six 

 weeks, and, even 

 while I write, is still 

 in good condition. Its strong, glaucous green scape is slightly 

 over four and a half feet long, and bears forty-four flowers, 

 the largest and richest-colored I have yet seen. 



This species requires to be grown in a warm atmospliere, 

 and should be suspended in baskets from the glass, so as to 

 enable the plants to enjoy as much light as [)ossible. Great 

 attention must be paid to watering, for if too much be given 

 during the growing season, the bulbs are apt to become rotten 

 when their grow'th is about half finished. As soon as the 

 plants have done growing, the temperature of a cooler house 



