ONCIDIUM TIGRINUM.
[[Plate 137].]
Native of Mexico.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs ovate, compressed, blunt-edged, two or three-leaved, three inches in length. Leaves oblong-lanceolate acute, leathery in texture, folded and sheathing at the base. Scape radical, two feet long, bearing a panicle of numerous showy blossoms. Flowers distinct in character from the marked contrast presented between the small tiger-striped sepals and petals, and the ample bright yellow lip, having a delicious odour of violets; sepals linear-oblong acute, wavy and revolute at the margins, the lateral ones curving upwards laterally, so that they all stand above the base of the lip, the colour yellowish green, heavily blotched with transverse bands of dark chestnut-brown; petals similar to the sepals in form and colour, curving upwards laterally like the lateral sepals; lip three-lobed, of a pure chrome yellow, paler on the outer side; the lateral lobes oblong with rounded angles, almost semicircular, entire, flat; the middle lobe large, about an inch in depth, and one and three-quarters inch in breadth, transversely oblong-reniform, emarginate, apiculate, with a distinct basal isthmus on which is seated a furrowed ridge or crest, one-eighth of an inch high, having a three-lobed tubercle in front. Column short, yellow, with two lateral oblong hatchet-shaped wings.
Oncidium tigrinum, Llave et Lexarza, Novorum Vegetabilium Descriptiones, fasc. 2, 36; Lindley, Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, 203; Id. Folia Orchidacea, Oncidium, No. 157; Reichenbach fil., in Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ, vi., 794.
Oncidium Barkeri, Lindley, Botanical Register, 1841, Misc. 174; Id. Sertum Orchidaceum, t. 48; L’Illustration Horticole, t. 2; Paxton’s Magazine of Botany, xiv., 97.
Oncidium tigrinum is one of the most beautiful and distinct of the many yellow-flowered species of Oncids. It is a free-growing and free-blooming species, of compact growth, with a moderate-sized branching spike, and flowers of long duration. It blooms at a time, in autumn, when Orchid flowers are most welcome. Another good quality of this plant is, that it will thrive well in the cool house, with Odontoglots, the bright colour of its blossoms proving to be extremely effective among the white flowers of O. Alexandræ. It grows about the same size as that plant, and has good evergreen foliage, which is a great attraction in any plant, and helps to show the flowers off to advantage. Our drawing, which was taken from a specimen grown in the Victoria Nursery, represents one of the best forms we have seen. There are smaller varieties of this species, but they are all worth cultivating on account of their showy colours. This was, at one time, a rare plant, but latterly our collectors have been able to import it more freely.
Oncidium tigrinum is, as we have remarked, an evergreen species, with dark brownish green pseudobulbs, about three inches in height; and usually produces two leaves, about a foot in length, of a lively green colour, and a branching spike growing two feet long, and furnished with many handsome blossoms—the sepals and petals of which are greenish yellow, spotted and barred with brown, and the lip is bright yellow. It blooms during the autumn and winter seasons, and continues in bloom for six weeks. We grew this plant many years ago under the name of O. Barkeri; it was very rare at that time, and we grew it with the Cattleyas, but we have found since, that it succeeds well in the Odontoglossum house. Since the plants may be bought at a cheap rate, many duplicates of this species should be grown, for its brilliant golden flowers produce a grand effect among the white and delicate tints of O. Alexandræ. The yellow colour is required for contrast, and their spikes being similar in habit of growth, they associate well together.
We find the best material to grow them in is rough fibrous peat, with good drainage, which should be thus applied:—fill the pots three-parts full of broken crocks and charcoal mixed together; add a few lumps of charcoal to the peat, which helps to keep it open, moreover, the roots of the plant like to cling to it; let the plant be elevated on this material three inches above the pot rim, from which the roots will be delighted to run down, and can either go inside or work over the material, which should always be kept sweet and not allowed to stagnate. The plant is easy of cultivation if its requirements are attended to. It must be kept moist during the growing season, not, however, continually soaked with water, but just sufficient being given to keep the plant in vigorous state of growth. When the growth is completed, give just enough water to keep the pseudobulbs and foliage in a good plump state.
PL. 138. LÆLIA ALBIDA.
LÆLIA ALBIDA.
[[Plate 138].]
Native of Mexico.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs ovate, clustered, about the size of pigeon’s eggs, becoming furrowed in age, marked about the middle by a transverse ring or scar, diphyllous. Leaves narrow lanceolate acute, somewhat leathery, of a deep green colour. Scape terminal, slender, two or three times as long as the leaves, bearing a raceme of five to eight flowers, and furnished with rigid sessile ovate bracts. Flowers white, powerfully sweet-scented, with an odour resembling that of the glandular leaves of the Chinese Primrose, but having a honey-like sweetness superadded, rather small as compared with other species of the genus, being a little over two inches in expanse in each direction; sepals oblong-lanceolate acute, spreading, plane, mucronulate, ivory white; petals oblong ovate, subundulate, rather shorter than the sepals, recurved at the tip, mucronulate, also of an ivory white; lip obovate, three-lobed, the lateral lobes obtuse, of a rosy hue externally, inside veined with red-pink, erect, that is folded up against the column, the middle lobe roundish-oblong obtuse, obscurely apiculate, recurved, slightly tinted with rose; disk with three yellow crests running out in the front lobe into a pale red bar or central line, with rosy veins on each side which give a faint rosy tint to the surface, the two lateral crests yellow spotted with dark reddish-purple. Column elongate, glabrous, crimson-purple on the inner face.
Lælia albida, Bateman, in Botanical Register, 1839, misc. 4; Lindley, Botanical Register, 1839. t. 54; Hooker, Botanical Magazine, t. 3957.
Bletia albida, Reichenbach fil., in Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ, vi., 428.