PRESCOTTIA 35 



12. PRESCOTTIA Lindl. 



Terrestrial herbs, roots clustered on a rhizome, fibrous, 

 sometimes fleshy ; stem leafy, slender or tall, simple, with several 

 sheaths above the leaves. Leaves crowded at the base of the 

 stalk or radical, sessile or with long stalks, small or ample, 

 membranous. Flowers small, sometimes very small, numerous 

 in a thick or slender spike, subsessile. Bracts shorter than the 

 flower. Sepals membranous, connate at the base in a short cup 

 or a somewhat long tube, at the apex spreading or generally 

 revolute. Petals narrow, thin, adnate to the sepaline cup just 

 above the median sepal. Lip on the upper side of the flower ; claw 

 adnate to the sepaline cup, blade erect, broad, somewhat fleshy, very 

 concave, arched, hooded or almost closed, at the base 2-auriculate, 

 often enclosing the column. Column very short, adnate to the 

 sepaline cup ; stigmatic surface beneath the broad, membranous, 

 retuse rostellum ; clinandrium erect, acuminate or produced, as 

 it were, into a filament, margins connate with rostellum. 

 Anther erect on the margin or point of the clinandrium, 

 generally short, with cells diverging ; pollinia powdery-granular. 

 Capsule small, erect, ovoid or oblong. 



Species about 32, natives of tropical America from the West 

 Indies and Mexico to Brazil and Ecuador. 



Flowers green ; sepals revolute ; lip 4 mm. 1 1. P. stachyodes. 



Flowers white or rosy, minute ; sepals connivent ; 



lip 1 mm. 1 2. P. oligantha. 



1. P. stachyodes Lindl. in Bot. Beg. sub. t. 1915 [err. typ. 

 1916) (1836) ; leaves large, long-stalked; flowers green, changing 

 to a tawny yellow ; sepals revolute, narrowly oblong ; lip long, 

 4 mm. 1. Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 454. P. myosurus Beichb. f. 

 in Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Lid. 639 (1864); Cogn. in Mart. FL 

 Bras. Hi. pt. 4, 258, t. 61, & in Symb. Ant. vi. 359. Cranichis 

 stachyodes Sw. Prodr. 120 (1788), FL Lid. Occ. 1427, t. 29,/. 4, 

 & Ic. ined. t. 24. Type in Herb. Mus. Brit. 



On stony ground or peaty soil in damp shady places ; in fl. and fr. Nov.- 

 Feb. ; Blue Mts., Swartz ! Macfadyen ! Christiana Woods, Manchester, 

 Purdiel Tiddenham, St. Ann, Priori Blue Mts., J.P. 234, Morris ! Morse's 

 Gap, 4900 ft., Fawcett ! Moore 1 Harris ! near Mabess Biver, 3000-4000 ft. ; 

 near John Crow Peak, 5800 ft. ; ridge below Vinegar Hill, 3800 ft. ; road to 

 Vinegar Hill, 4500 ft.; Harris I Fl. Jam. 7553, 7556, 7572, 7750, 7769, 

 7846, 10,094 (partly), 10,096, 10,408, 10,480, 10,481. Cuba, Hispaniola, 

 Porto Bico, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent, 

 Trinidad, Costa Bica, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil. 



Plant 1-2 ft. high. Stem slender or stout, with several radical leaves, 

 invested by numerous, membranous sheaths, 2-6 dm. 1. Leaves broadly 

 oval, ovate or elliptical, shortly acuminate, base sometimes subcordate, 

 tapering into the stalk, entire or minutely crenulate, veins slightly 

 prominent on the under surface, blade 7-14 cm. 1., 3*5-8 cm. br. ; stalks 



D 2 



