18 
bed having two lateral lacerated processes, it is surrounded by 
a deep fringed border. Finally, instead of the lip being per- 
fectly smooth, continuous, and destitute of all appendages at 
the base, it is contracted about the middle, below the contrac- 
tion furnished with a pair of thick fleshy lobes hollowed out 
in the middle and standing erect or each side of the column, 
without however touching it; and the space between those 
lobes, forming the very base of the lip, is a hollow hairy pit. 
Upon looking at this curious apparatus in front, the anther 
and column look like an old-fashioned head-dress peeping over 
one of those starched high collars, such as ladies wore in the 
days of Queen Elizabeth ; or through a horse collar deco- 
rated with gaudy ribbons ; and this has led to the name, which 
has been fashioned out of Helcium, a word said to mean the 
collar of a horse, though; considering its obvious derivation, 
one would rather have imagined it to signify his traces. _ 
The following character will sufficiently indicate the pecu- 
liarity of this new genus. 
Heccia. Sepala $ petala coriacea, conformia, patula. La- 
bellum patulum, membranaceum, planum, medio con- 
strictum, basi utrinque appendice carnosà truncatà medio 
foveatà in lineas duas breves elevatas procurrente auctum, 
ipsa basi excavatum pilosum. Columna libera teres, 
clinandrio erecto undique fimbriato. Anthera carnosa, 
in pileum solidum obtusum producta, 2-locularis. Pol. 
linia 2, postice excavata, caudiculà cuneatä, glandulä 
parva ovali. — Herba pseudobulbosa, folis solitariis; 
coriaceis, undulatis, pedunculis radicalibus. 
H. sanguinolenta. Pseudobulbi ovati, elongati, subteretes. 
Folia 4-6 pollicaria, undulata, basi in petiolum canali- 
culatum angustata. Pedunculus pseudobulbis brevior, 
uniflorus, bibracteatus. Sepala et petala olivacea, fus- 
cosanguineo maculata. Labellum album striis sangui- 
nolentis, obovatum, emarginatum, appendicibus luteis 
denticulatis striatis. 
The relationship of this plant is evidently greatest to 
Trichopilia. It is however also an associate of Aspasia, from 
which it differs in not having the lip united to the column, 
and in its deep-fringed anther-bed. All these are stationed 
in a subdivision of Vandeæ, to which 1 propose to give the 
name of Brassidæ. 
