296 



POPULAR GARDEN BOTANY. 



ONCIDIUM. 



This is another genus of Epiphyte Orchids,, natives of 

 the West Indies and South America. They are very curi- 

 ous plants, of which near a hundred species have been in- 

 troduced into the hothouse on account of the great beauty 

 of the flowers. 0. papilio, growing in Trinidad, has large 

 yellow and red blossoms, of w T hich the footstalk is so slen- 

 der that they move about in the wind, looking like splendid 

 insects ; it is there called the Butterfly Plant. Mr. Gosse 

 mentions one he found, of which the leaves were a foot and 

 a half long and four or five inches wide, and that the flower- 

 spikes were eight or ten feet in length ; the flowers however, 

 he says, were not very conspicuous for beauty, they being of 

 a yellow hue, studded all over with red dots. It was the spe- 

 cies Carthagense, and he found it in abundance in Jamaica, 

 growing on Calabash-trees. The colours of the fiWers of 

 all the species seem to be yellow of various shades, from 

 straw to copper-colour, and tinged with green, red, brown, 

 and other colours. This genus does not seem to be difficult 

 to cultivate if plenty of heat and moisture be allowed. 



