variable characters. The B. nodosa, figured in the Bota- 
nical Register, t. 1465, is a specimen with unusually large 
flowers. 
Descr. This plant has a sort of creeping and branching 
caudex, from which arise several short, rounded, striated 
and jointed stems, clothed with membranous sheaths singu- 
larly swollen at the base, each bearing at the apex a long, 
thick, semiterete, fleshy, subulate, pungent leaf, six inches 
to a foot in length, with a deep groove on the anterior side. 
From the base of this groove, and from the top of the stem, 
appears a short peduncle, bearing three or four moderately 
large, drooping flowers. Sepals and petals uniform, linear- 
acuminate, spreading, pale green. Lip cordate, acuminate, 
waved, white, suddenly contracted into a greenish claw, 
equal in length with the lamina, and which completely en- 
folds and conceals the short column. Column semiterete, 
greenish-white, having at the apex three large, entire teeth, 
two of them lateral and one dorsal, extending much beyond 
the anther, which is thus concealed. Anther-case hemi- 
spherical, eight-celled, containing two pairs of yellow 
pollen-masses. 
Fig. 1. Lip. 2. Side view of the Column. 3, Froiit view of ditto. 4 
Anther-case. 5. Pollen-masses magnified. ront view of di 7 
