[Plate 26.] 



THE PURPLE-LIPPED ONCID. 



(ONCIDIUM HiEMATOCHILUM.) 



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



Specific (!D!)aracter. 



THE PURPLE-LIPPED ONCID.— (Sect. Plurituberculate.) Bulbless. Leaves oblong, flat, thick, sharp-pointed, 

 spotted, growing singly. Racemes compact, stiff. Sepals distinct, and the petals all of similar form, spathulate, 

 wavy; lip roundish, with auricles at the base ; the crest scarcely evident at the base, wavy in front like the letter 

 W, thence raised into an eminence, with a toothlet on each side. Wings of the column rounded, curved down- 

 wards, somewhat lobed. 



THE accompanying drawing was made in September, 1847, from a plant in the possession 

 of Messrs. Loddiges, and we believe it is found in their list under the provisional name 

 of 0. luriclum purpicr attorn. They had imported it from New Granada ; but it does not occur 

 among any dried collections which we have examined from that country. 



In foliage it resembles the Carthagena Oncid (0. Carthaginense) and its allies ; the leaves 

 being hard, stiff, dull green, spotted with brown, and destitute of any evident pseudo-bulb. The 

 flowers, too, grow in the same manner, but they are very different in details of structure, as well 

 as in colour and size. The sepals and petals are a warm greenish-yellow, strongly blotched with 

 rich chestnut-brown. The lip, on the other hand, is of the richest crimson, except near the base, 

 where it fades into bright rose-colour. The crest, by the minute peculiarity of which Oncids 

 are often most certainly known, resembles the letter W, having in the rear a short, nattish, 

 narrow space, and in front a well-defined projection,, with a small tooth on each side. 



By these circumstances it is readily distinguished from the neighbouring species, in none of 

 which such an arrangement occurs, varied as are the forms assumed by the tubercles of their 

 crest. In all the varieties of the Carthagena Oncid there is, for instance, a pair of strong 

 warts in place of the small teeth, one on each side of the anterior elevation, and the W-like 

 body is divided into two distinct Vs. In the sanguine Oncid the two posterior tubercles are 

 more oblong, projecting with a furrow along the middle. In Professor Morren's new Rosette 

 Oncid (0. cosymbepTiorwm) , nearly allied to this, there is quite a bunch of tubercles at the 

 base of the lip. 



