Tas. 8631. 
PROMENAEA MICROPTERA. 
Tropical South America. 
ORCHIDACEAE. Tribe VANDEAE. 
Promenaka, Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1848, p. 13. Zygopetalum § Promenaea, 
Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 548. 
Promenaea microptera, Reichb. f. in Gard. Chron. 1881, vol. xvi. p. 134, ad 
calc.; species a P. wanthina, Lindl., sepalis petalisque angustioribus et 
labelli lobo intermedio multo angustiore apte sejungenda. 
Herba epiphytica. Pseudobulbi aggregati, ovoidei, suleati, 1°5-2 cm. longi, 
apice diphylli. Folia lanceolata, acuminata, subarcuata, plicata, pallide 
viridia, 7-9 cm. longa, 1*3-1°5 em. lata. Scapi laterales, arcuati, graciles, 
6-7 cm. longi, uniflori, prope basin parce vaginati; bractea lanceolata, 
acuminata, concava, circiter 1 cm.longa. Flores mediocres, pallide virides, 
labello transverse purpureo-maculato. Sepala et petala patentia, oblongo- 
lanceolata, acuminata, 1°7-2 em. longa, Labellum trilobum, 1°8 cm. 
longum; lobi laterales suberecti, late rotundato-deltoidei, subobtusi, 
breves ; lobus intermedius elliptico-oblongus, apice recurvus et subacutus ; 
discus crista transversa prominenter tuberculata instructus. Columna 
clavata, marginata. Pollinia 4, obovoidea, subcompressa, glandula lata 
acuta affixa.— Zygopetalum micropterum, Reichb. f., l.e.—R. A. Roure. 
The genus Promenaea was founded by Lindley over 
seventy years ago on four small Brazilian species which 
had until then been included in Mazillaria, Ruiz et Pav., 
along with a fifth from British Guiana ; some other species 
have since then been described from Colombia. The late 
Professor Reichenbach subsequently included Promenaea, 
with other allied genera, in Zygopetalum, proposed by Sir 
William Hooker in 1827. In this Reichenbach was 
followed by Bentham and Hooker in 1883, though they 
accorded Promenaea the status of asection. Reichenbach, 
however, had already reconsidered his earlier conclusion, 
and Promenaea is now thought as entitled to generic rank 
as some other similar groups whose status has never been 
questioned. One species of this genus, P. graminea, Lindl., 
from Guiana, has been figured at t. 3877 of this work 
as Mavillaria stapelioides; the true P. stapelioides is, how- 
ever, a native of Brasil. The interesting little species 
now figured has a somewhat obscure history, for we are 
still without definite record of its native country. The 
OcroBER, 1915. 
