Tas. 7085. 
XYLOBIUM LEONTOGLOSSUM. 
Native of New Grenada. 
Nat. Ord. OncHIpEm.—Tribe VANDER. 
Genus Maxiarta, Lindl.; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Pi. vol. iii. p. 547.) 
XyLosiuM leontoglossum ; pseudobulbis confertis fusiformibus, folio petiolato 
elliptico-lanceolato acuto plicato, scapo robusto vaginato inclinato, 
vaginis laxis acutis, racemo oblongo v. cylindraceo nutante densifloro, 
bracteis minutis triangularibus, pedicellis brevissimis, foribus flavis rubro- 
unctatis, sepalo dorsali oblongo acuto, lateralibus oblongo-lanceolatis . 
asi gibbis, mento rotundato, labelli oblongi lobis lateralibus angustis 
apice rotundatis apicibus loboque terminali rotundato carnoso granulatis, 
disco hypochili 3-carinato. 
X. leontoglossum, Benth. in Gen, Plant. vol. iii. p. 547 ; Rolfe in Gard. Chron. 
1889, 1. 458, 
Moxilias. leontoglossa, Reichb. f. in Bonpland. vol. iii. p. 67; Walp. Ann. 
vi. 509. 
Xylobium, Lindl., is an offshoot of the vast American 
assemblage of Orchids formerly included under Maviilaria. 
It was proposed by Lindley in 1823 for the reception of 
his Mazillaria squalens (Dendrobium squalens, Bot. Reg. 
t. 732), and the sole character given was, that there were 
only two pollen-masses. Later, in 1832, in an enumeration 
of Mawillariee under M. decolor (Bot. Reg. t. 1549), 
Lindley reduced his Xylobium to a section of Mawillaria, 
characterized by the superior lip alone, nothing being said 
of the pollen; and in the same year, in the “ Genera et 
Species Orchidearum,” its reduction is upheld on the same 
grounds. : 
In this Magazine my predecessor, in describing M. 
squalens (Plate 2955), observes that Xylobiwm differs in 
no way from Mazillaria; and Reichenbach in Walper’s 
Annales characterizes it as a section of Mazillaria, by the 
spicate inflorescence alone, paying no regard to the foliage, 
position of the lip, or pollen. Finally, in the Genera 
Plantarum Xylobiwm is restored by Bentham to generic rank, 
and placed next to Bifrenaria in the subtribe Cyrtopodiee 
on account of its plicate leaves, Mazillaria being placed in 
Mazillariew, which have coriaceous leaves; its distinctive 
November Ist, 1889. 
