50 ORCHIDS. 
ONCIDIUM. — Tuberculous appearance. 
TuIs is an extensive genus, belonging to the third tribe. 
It reccives its name from knobby protuberances in the blos- 
soms, resembling tubercles. The family is chiefly from tropical 
America. According to Monsieur Figuier, a French florist, “the 
prevailing color of their flowers is yellow, spotted with rich reddish 
brown, and they are known by their broad labellum or lip, contin- 
uous with the column, and furnished at the base with a tuberculated 
(knobby) disc. In their native forests these epiphytes wholly over- 
run some trees, clasping them round, and covering them from top 
to bottom with brilliant and grotesque flowers.” 
One variety of Oncidium is spoken of as having golden pani- 
cles nine or ten feet long. They all belong to the class of cool 
orchids, are evergreens, very showy, of easy culture, and give 
abundance of gay blossoms. 
