'241 
ONCIDIUM LEUCOCHILUM. 
(WHITE-LIPPED ONCIDIUM.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Vide vol. iv. p. 77. 
Specific Character. — Plant an epiphyte. Pseudo-bulbs oblong, rather attenuated at the apex, slightly 
furrowed. Leaves numerous, some sheathing the base of the pseudo-bulb, one on its summit, 
linear-lanceolate, acute, channelled. Scape tall, paniculate. Sepals and petals oblong, somewhat 
obtuse, nearly equal, much expanded. Labellum kidney-shaped, deeply two-lobed, emarginate, on 
each side white ; lateral lobes retuse, small ; crest three-horned at the base, toothed on each side ; 
wings of the column scimitar-shaped, toothed. 
In a genus like Oncidium, the species of which are so very abundant, and so 
rapidly increasing in number that several detachments have been made from the 
old group, and formed into new genera, in order to facilitate their recognition, and 
assist in preventing confusion ; it is of the utmost moment that each species should 
have at least one prominent feature in its character by which it may be at once 
distinguished, and that, if possible, this point should be the one on which the 
specific appellation is founded. With the major part of Oncidia, we are happy to 
observe that such is really the case ; and if a few of them are characterized by the 
peculiarities of insignificant or obscure organs, the plant now before us is one of 
the best defined with which we are familiar, unless it be those whose leaves furnish 
marks of distinction. 
Without seeking any other criterion, the grower of 0. leucochilum may, as soon 
as its flowers are expanded, immediately determine its name by the large and 
conspicuous white labellum, so strongly contrasting with the very lively yellowish 
green and brown of the sepals and petals. In one or two other species, perhaps, 
the same character exists ; but these are directly known to have different desig- 
nations by the dissimilar hues of the outer segments of the blossoms, their inferiority 
in size and showiness, and the general diminutiveness of the entire plant. 
So far from 0. leucochilum growing in a weakly or slender manner, like the 
kinds just referred to, it is equally as luxuriant, and attains almost as great an 
altitude, as any of the most exuberant sorts. Cultivated successfully, or according 
4 to the rules directly to be given, it reaches the ordinary height of seven or eight 
feet ; and the specimen from which we procured our drawing, having bloomed in 
VOL. VII. — no. lxxxiii. i i 
