176 ONCIDIUM PAPILIO. 
No orchidaceous plant is more easily cultivated. Placed in a moderate- sized 
pot, in a mixture of heath-soil and potsherds, it requires no other attention than 
shifting once a year, and carefully administering water to its roots, or occasionally 
over the leaves. With regard to heat, it is likewise very accommodating, since it 
will thrive in either a high or a low temperature, with a due modification of the 
quantity of water administered according to either of these circumstances. We 
have not the slightest doubt that this species might be grown successfully even in a 
greenhouse, provided that the atmosphere could be maintained in a trifling state of 
humidity during the summer season, as we have seen plants of it flourishing in 
extraordinary luxuriance when kept in a house with a temperature very little 
above that of the greenhouse. It is certain that it would thrive in a lower temper- 
ature than is usually supplied to our orchidaceous houses, and this renders it avail- 
able for those gardens where a sufficient degree of heat cannot be commanded for 
cultivating most other orchidacese. 
Plants of it may be purchased for a trifling sum of any imrserymen who culti- 
vate this beautiful tribe : and we would recommend all who have any taste for those 
flowers in which the curious and the beautiful are combined, to obtain this most 
interesting species, even though they may not possess a collection of other orchi- 
daceous plants. 
It was first introduced to this country by his Excellency Sir Ralph Woodford, 
Governor of Trinidad, in 1825 ; and of its most appropriate specific appellation 
Dr. Lindley observes {Bot. Reg. 910), " The name has doubtless been suggested 
by the brilliant colours of the flower, its singular form, which may be easily likened 
to the wings, body, antenna, and tongue, of a butterfly, and its fluttering motion 
when hanging from its stalk, at the extremity of the weak, elastic, jointed scape." 
