[Plate 44.] 



THE SESSILE ONCID. 



(ONCIDIUM SESSILE.) 



A Stove Epiphyte, from Peru, belonging to the Natural Order of Orchids. 



Specific Character. 



THE SESSILE ONCID.— Pseudo-bulbs two-leaved, oblong, compressed, ribbed. Leaves strap-shaped, papery, blunt, 

 shorter than the scape, which bears a panicled raceme. Sepals distinct and petals equal in size and form, all 

 sessile. Lip-eared, dilated at the end and retuse; its re-entering angles slightly lobed ; the crest hollowed out, 

 smooth, three-lobed, with two small edges in front. Wings of the calyx short and truncated. 



A NATIVE of the country at the back of Santa Martha, whence it was sent to His 

 Grace the Duke of Northumberland by Mr, Purdie. It flowered at Syon. 

 It is nearly related to the little known Excavated Oncid (0. excavatum), a Peruvian 

 plant formerly in the possession of Messrs. Loddiges; but it is much handsomer, and may be 

 regarded as one of the best of the little group to which it belongs. The Excavated Oncid 

 differs essentially in the following circumstances : the flowers form a loose, and not a close 

 or racemose panicle ; the sepals are narrower than the petals, not of the same breadth, they 

 are distinctly stalked (unguiculate) , not perfectly sessile, and they are acute, not blunt like the 

 petals ; the hollow at the base of the lip is much more considerable, and covered with little 

 frosty specks, but here it is quite smooth ; there are a few scattered tubercles on each side 

 of the hollow, but here there are none ; and the wings of the column are much larger, 

 rounded and not truncate. 



The habit of this species is that of the Lofty Oncid (0. aUissimum) on a small scale; 

 the leaves have the same firm thin texture ; and the flowers are in a narrow panicle. The 

 sepals and petals are remarkable, in this genus, for their total want of the stalk or unguis so 

 generally characteristic of Oncids ; instead of which they sit close round the column, and 

 give the flower something of the roundness and flatness obtained by art in what are called 



