We find the East India house to suit these Calanthes best, or they will thrive well in a house where stove plants are grown. They are propagated by separating the pseudobulbs at the time they are potted, and as they generally make two growths from one bulb the increase is comparatively rapid. Like other orchidaceous plants, they must be kept free from insects.
[Illustration: PL. 32. ONCIDIUM HÆMATOCHILUM.]
ONCIDIUM HÆMATOCHILUM. [Plate 32.] Native of New Grenada.
Epiphytal. _Pseudobulbs_ none or obsolete, the leaves and flower-scapes springing directly from the axils of the scaly bracts which surround the crown. _Leaves_ solitary, flat, oblong, acute, leathery in texture, dull green spotted with reddish brown, nine to twelve inches long. _Scape_ radical, deep red, supporting a dense panicle of green spotted crimson-lipped flowers. _Flowers_ about an inch and a half across, showy on account of their rich colouring and markings; _sepals_ oval-oblong, yellowish green, thickly marked with irregular transverse bands of rich reddish brown; _petals_ oblong, spathulate, wavy, similar in colour to the sepals, but less heavily marked; _lip_ clawed, with a pair of auricles at the base, the claw and auricles deep magenta-rose colour, the front expanded portion roundish or transversely reniform, of a deep sanguineous crimson, and having the margin yellow, closely mottled with deep rose-crimson, the disk furnished with a flexuose crest shaped like the letter W, and thence raised into an eminence with a toothlet on each side. _Column_ short, with rounded wings curved downwards and somewhat lobed.
Oncidium hæmatochilum, _Lindley_, in _Paxton’s Flower Garden_, i., t. 6; _Id._, re-issue, t. 26; _Id._, _Folia Orchidacea_, art. _Oncidium_, No. 132; _Reichenbach fil._, in _Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ_, vi., 783.
Oncidium luridum purpuratum, _Loddiges_, _List_—_fide_ Lindley.
This is undoubtedly one of our oldest Orchids—one that we recollect to have seen in bloom with the Messrs. Loddiges, in their noble collection of Orchids, about thirty years ago. We have always been under the impression that it was one of the prettiest of the spotted Oncidiums, but, although we have occasionally bloomed it, since then we have seen it in very few collections. We were accordingly very greatly pleased to meet with a remarkably fine example of it in the collection of G. W. L. Schofield, Esq., of Rawtenstall, near Manchester, from which our illustration was taken. The plant bore two flower-spikes, one of which was three feet six inches in length, bearing forty fine blossoms, and was a most beautiful example of the species; the other was shorter, and from this our drawing was made, as our page would not afford space for the representation of the larger spike. Our readers will, however, be enabled from the description and figure to form a good idea of the beauty of this rare species when well grown. Mr. Schofield is a great lover of good Orchids, and apparently intends having a fine collection of them, as he has had houses built for the different classes; his gardener also takes great interest in the plants, and consequently they are closely looked after and well cared for.