Tas. 4570. 
SOBRALIA SESSILIS. 
Sessile-flowered Sobralia. 
Nat. Ord. OrcH1IDE®.—GyNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4446.) 
Sopra sessilis; caule foliisque subtus nigro-pubescentibus, foliis sessilibus 
oblongo-lanceolatis acuminatis 2 terminalibus squameeformibus acuminatis 
herbaceis, floribus sessilibus, labello rhombeo-oblongo glabro lamellis 2 
intramarginalibus prope basin. Lindl. 
Soprata sessilis. Lindl. Bot. Reg. Misc. 1841. n.11. Bot. Reg. 1841. t. 17. 
A native of British Guiana, where it was discovered and im- 
ported to Messrs. Loddiges’ collection about ten years ago, by 
Sir R. H. Schomburgk, and then first described by Dr. Lindley. 
It is, as he remarks, not one of the most showy of this fine 
genus. With us it flowers in October. 
Descr. Terrestrial. Stems one and a half to two feet high, 
erect, tufted, reed-like, jointed, sheathed by the base of the 
leaves and clothed with black or dark-coloured hairs. Leaves 
few, near the apex of the plant, broad-lanceolate, very much acu- 
minated, nerved and plaited, paler beneath: the two superior 
ones immediately beneath the flower are small (but unequal) and 
bracteiform. FYower solitary, terminal, larger and different in 
colour in our plant from Dr. Lindley’s above quoted. Sepals 
and petals nearly white, or but slightly tinged with rose, the 
former spreading, oblong-lanceolate, acute; the latter larger, 
broader, obtuse, and erecto-patent. Zip yellowish, deeply stained 
with rose-purple, obovato-rhomboid, tapering into a narrow 
white claw at the base, within this claw are two small white 
lamelle: the margin is waved, the sides turned in. Column 
very much elongated but thicker upwards: the anther lodged in 
a cavity (clinandrium) at the top of the column. VW. J. H. 
Curt. This is a species of a very pretty genus of terrestrial 
MARCH Ist, 1851. 
