32 ORCHIDS OF JAMAICA 



10. CRANICHIS Sw. 



Terrestrial herbs, with roots Bomewhal clustered. Leaves 

 radical, broad, spreading, membranous, many-nerved, reticulately 

 veined, with long stalks, flattish, sheathing at base. Scape 

 generally slender, simple, with a few sheaths. Flowers small, in 

 a spike. Bracts shorl <r narrow. Sepals free, subequal, more or 

 less connivent. Petals a little shorter than the sepals, and less 

 than half as broad, spreading, free from the column. Lip on 

 the upper side of the flower, sessile or shortly clawed at the base 

 of the column, erect, concave, embracing the column, undivided. 

 Column short ; rostellum ample, erect, often longer than the 

 column, posteriorly (towards the anther) concave and 2-winged ; 

 stigma anterior, near the apex; clinandrium short. Anther on 

 the margin of the clinandrium, sessile or stalked, erect, parallel 

 to the rostellum and somewhat shorter than it, with distinct 

 cells ; pollinia powdery-granular, acuminate, pendulous from a 

 gland of the rostellum. Capsule erect, ovoid or oblong. 



Species about 30, natives of the West Indies, Mexico, and 

 the Andes of tropical America. 



Sheaths foliaceous on scape, leaves 4-6 1. C. muscosa. 



Sheaths not foliaceous, leaves 1 or 2. 



Leaves ovate, cordate ; petal glabrous ... 2. C. dipliylla. 



Leaves roundish - ovate, sub-cordate ; 



petals hairy on margin 3. C.pilosa. 



1. C. muscosa Sw. Prodr. 120 (1788); glabrous; sheaths 

 foliaceous, passing into bracts above ; leaves few (46), and often 

 one just above base, oval, oval-roundish, elliptical or ovate, acute 

 or obtuse ; petals narrowly linear-lanceolate, obtuse to subacute, 

 glabrous, white. Siv. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1429, t. 29, /. 3, & Ic. ined. 

 t. 25 ; Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 451 ; Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 639 ; 

 Cogn. in Symb. Ant. vi. 354 ; Ames Orch. S. Fla. 14, t. 3. Type 

 in Herb. Mus. Brit. 



On damp shady banks, in fl. Nov.-Feb. ; Shakespearl Swartzl Wiles ! 

 Bancroft ! Macfayden ! McNab ! Ponds, St. Elizabeth ; Woodside, St. 

 Mary; Hectors River, Manchester, Purdiel Wilson ! Fairfield, Wull- 

 schlaegel 1070! Priori J.P. 2068, Morris I Mt. Moses, J.P. 2068, Syme ! 

 below Whitfield Hall Works, Sullivan ! near Morse's Gap, 4500 ft. ; 

 near Vinegar Hill, 4500 ft., 3950 ft. ; Tweedside, 3000 ft. ; Silver Hill Gap, 

 3800 ft. ; Moodv's Gap, 3000 ft. ; Troy, 2000 ft. ; Harris ! Fl. Jam. 7469, 

 7551, 7563, 7800, 10,093, 10,660. Florida, Cuba, Porto Rico, St. Kitts, 

 Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad. 



Plant ^-1 ft. high. Scape 15-30 cm. 1. Leaves, blade 4-7 cm. 1., 

 2 5-3 '5 cm. br. ; stalks 2-6 cm. 1. Sheaths, blade roundish-oval, obtuse, 

 near base of stem, to lanceolate, acuminate, above, 3 - 5-*75 cm. 1. 

 Spike dense-flowered, 3-5 cm. 1. Floivers white, perianth about ^ in. 1. 

 Bracts triangular-ovate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 1-nerved, 

 shorter than the ovary, 4 mm. 1. Ovary 5 mm. 1. Sepals, median 

 narrowly ovate-oblong, obtuse, 1-nerved, 2-6 mm. 1., 1*3 mm. br. ; 

 lateral broadly semi-ovate, somewhat acute or obtuse, 2-nerved, 2*7- 



