[Plate 71.] 



THE THREE-TONGUED ONCID. 



(OXCIDIUM TRILINGUE ) 



A Hothouse Epiphyte, from Peru, belonging to the Orchidaceous Order. 



Specific Character. 



THE THREE-TONGUED ONCID.— Raceme somewhat twining, panicled at the base. Flowers thin. Bracts oblong, 

 spathaceous, four times shorter than the ovary. Lateral sepals unguiculate, connate at the base, lanceolate, long, 

 wavy ; that at the back roundish ovate, crisp, the claw eared at the base and as long as the column. Petals 

 lanceolate, revolute, very crisp. Lip dagger-shaped, crisp, revolute ; the segments at the base coarsely toothed, 

 fleshy, ascending, with a very large convex crest, three-tongued in front, having two tubercles behind, a thin 

 plate lying between, and a fleshy tooth on each side. Column smooth, with small bristle-shaped wings. 



THIS curious plant is a species of Oncid, with the habit of 0. macranihum, but with 

 flowers quite unlike anything in our gardens. It is, however, associated in nature 

 with many species of similar habit, having a small fleshy lip, combined with large and 

 unusually unguiculated sepals. They are the Cyrtochils of Humboldt and Kunth, and 

 form a complete transition to the genus Odontoglossum, from a portion of which they in 

 fact differ in nothing except the lip having no adhesion to the face of the column. 



The Cyrtochilian Oncids, as these plants might be termed, comprehend eleven 

 certain and two doubtful species, all from the tropical parts of South America, 

 where they grow on trees, and produce long rambling panicles of large brownish 

 flowers variously mottled with yellow and purple ; not unfrequently these 

 panicles twine round the neighbouring branches, a property which seems essential 



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