P late XXVII.
ONCIDIUM SANGUINEUM.
O. sanguineum; ebulbe, foliis oblongis coriaceis dorso carinatis, scapo longissimo
paniculato, sepalis subrotundis unguiculatis lateralibus basi subconnatis peta-
lisque crispis sublobatis, labelli trilobi subcrispi vemicati lobis subæqualibus
intermedio retuso cuneato, cristâ ovatâ convexâ corrugatâ, columnæ alis rotun-
datis sublobatis, antherâ puberulâ. Botanical Register, 1839, misceïl. no. 68.
La Guayra, a country of whose végétation but little is yet known, has furnished Messrs.
Loddiges with this gaily painted plant, in which we find quite a new mixture of colours for
Oncidium. Instead of the ground colour of the flowers being a deep brownish yellow, it is here
of a soft pale green; and for purple, or violet, or chocolate-coloured blotches we have a rich
crimson.
In habit the plant resembles O. carthaginense, with which it must be arranged ; it differs from
it in being smaller, in having the lateral lobes of the lip nearly as large as that in the middle, in the
surface of the lip being so polished as to appear as if varnished, and finally in the crest not being
three-lobed, but merely oblong and corrugated.
There are no visible pseudo-bulbs to this plant, but the leaves fold up at their base, where '
they are enveloped in rigid brown sheaths, and after a time produce from their axil the flowering
scape ; they are from six to eighteen inches long, very stiff, sharp-pointed, with a sharp ridge along
their back. The scape is about two feet high, panicled, and bending gracefully over the leaves ;
it is smooth, and obscurely spotted with dull crimson ; the bracts at the forks of the branches are
ovate, and acute with a membranous edge. In all that relates to the arrangement of the inflorescence
and the form of the parts it agrées with Oncidium carthaginense. The sepals and petals are
roundish, concave, very much crested and lobed at the edge, and long-stalked, pale greenish yellow,
blotched with bright crimson ; the lateral sepals are very slightly united at the base. The lip is
oblong, .contracted like an hour-glass in the middle, and heart-shaped at the base, by which means
it is separated into three lobes, of which the lateral are very much puckered and curled, and project
as far as the sides of the middle lobe, which is much less curled, wedge-shaped, rounded off at the
a n g l e s a n ( j emarginate ; in form it is very much like a saddle as seen from above ; in the middle it
is bright crimson, and so smooth as to appear varnished ; otherwise it is coloured like the other
parts ; the crest is ovate, very much shrivelled, blunt at the end, with an oblong central tubercle,
deep crimson except on the ridges of the folds, which are much paler. The column has a pair of
roundish spreading bars ; and an anther that is slightly covered with down which runs down over
the edges of the stigma.