ONCIDIUM LAMELLIGERUM. 



[Plate 315.] 



Native of Ecuador. 



Epiphytal. Psetidobidbs stout, ovoicl, or flask-shaped, six inches high, smooth when 

 young, and deep green, becoming wrinkled with age. Leaves eighteen inches to two 

 feet long, and two and a half inches broad, lanceolate-acuminate, coriaceous, and 

 bright green. Scape axillary, climbing, much branched, and many-flowered. Flowers 

 upwards of three inches in diameter ; sepals and petals clawed, the claws about 

 one-third the length of the blade ; dorsal sepal reniform, more than an inch wide, 

 undulated, deep brown, narrowly bordered witli yellow ; lateral sepals oblong, 

 divergent, two inches long, semi-hastate on the superior edge, at the base, and 

 cuneate on the lower edge ; petals broad, but shorter than the lateral sepals, oblong- 

 obtuse, becoming suddenly hastate, undulated, rich brown at base, apical half clear 

 yellow; lip very small, trifid, with two projecting serrated lamellae, the lateral 

 lobes triangular, deep rich purple, middle lobe linear, dull white, with a white 

 fleshy crest towards the base. 



Oncidium LAMELLIGERUM, Reichenhach fil. ; Gardeners' Chronicle, New Series, vi., 

 p. 808; /<i. New Series, x., p. 684; Williams, Orchid- Grower's Manual, 6 ed., p. 487. 



4 



This rare and handsome Oncidium belongs to the section Microchila, of Lindley ; 

 it is a very distinct plant, but yet it somewhat resembles Oncidium macranthum. 

 By some it is supposed to be a natural hybrid, and if such is the case we should 

 imagine the parents to have been O. macrathum and 0, serratiLm, which are two 

 distinct plants, and which we believe grow wild in the vicinity of each other. The 

 plant now under consideration possesses the colours of both the above-named species ; 

 the habit of growth is the same, and it also produces similar long-branched 

 flower- spikes. We first saw this Oncidium in the fine collection of C. Dorman, Esq., 

 Sydenham, some few years ago. It was a large specimen, and in full bloom at the 

 time. Within the last few years several species of Oncirlium belonging to this section 

 have been introduced from the United States of Columbia, such as 0. zehrinum, 0. 

 superhiens, O. macropus, 0. cemulum, 0. undulatum, &c. Some of them are very 

 beautiful, but differing in their style of beauty from those species which are of 

 Brazilian origin. These latter plants are principally indebted to the colouring of the 

 lip for their beauty, the sepals and petals being usually small and dull- coloured, 

 but in the species belonging to the Mirochila section, the sepals and petals play 

 the most important part in the display, the lip possessing little or no beauty, as 

 well as being inferior in size; this is well exemplified in the figure of 0. superhie7is 



in our sixth volume, plate 276, a very beautiful species, and somewhat similar to 



