LYCASTE 115 



Plant 1-2 ft. high. Pseudobulb ellipsoidal with two or three leaves at 

 apex, about 8 or 9 cm. 1., 5 cm. br. Leaves long-elliptical, tapering to a 

 short stalk and to apex, 3-5 dm. 1., 5-12 cm. br. Scapes 8-12 cm. 1. 

 Brads 4-6, sheathing, loose, ovate, obtuse, uppermost nearly as long as 

 stalked ovary, 1*5-3 cm. 1. Floivers drooping, nearly 2 in. 1., olive-green. 

 Stalked ovary about 3 mm. 1. Sepals 4-4 "5 cm. 1., about l - 7 cm. br., 

 oblong-ovate, lateral cohering and forming a bluntly conical chin, median 

 narrower. Petals similar to sepals but smaller. Lip light buff in colour, 

 about 3 "5-4 *5 cm. 1., with a long claw broadening upwards, lateral lobes at 

 apex of claw, narrowly falcate ; median ovate-oblong, blunt, with fimbriate 

 margin, and terminating abruptly by a broad deeply furrowed callus. 

 Column bordered, thicker upwards, about 2 cm. 1. (to end of foot over 

 3 cm. 1.). 



45. XYLOBIUM Lindl. 



Epiphytic herbs. Stems short, with several sheaths, becoming 

 thickened into fleshy pseudobulbs with one or two leaves. Leaves 

 ample or elongate, plaited, many-veined, contracted into the 

 stalk. Scapes at the base of pseudobulbs, erect, simple. 

 Flowers in racemes, medium-sized, very shortly stalked. Bracts 

 linear, generally rather long. Sepals nearly equal, erect, at 

 length somewhat spreading ; lateral broader than the median, 

 adnate at the base to the foot of the column, forming a chin. 

 Petals similar to the median sepal but smaller. Lip somewhat 

 jointed with the foot of the column, sessile or contracted at the 

 base and incumbent, then erect ; lateral lobes or sides erect, 

 embracing the column ; the median lobe or upper portion short, 

 broad, spreading ; the face lamellate or callose. Column erect, 

 semi-terete, anteriorly concave or narrowly 2-winged, produced at 

 the base into a foot ; clinandrium obliquely truncate. Anther 

 terminal, opercular, incumbent, very convex, 1 -celled ; pollinia 4, 

 ovoid, without an appendage, on the dehiscence of the anther 

 attached to a stalk which is sometimes rather long ; gland 

 transverse, scale-like. Capsule oblong, erect. 



Species about 12, natives of tropical America. 



Pseudobulb with one leaf 1. X. 'palmifolium. 



Pseudobulb with two leaves 2. X. stachyobiorum. 



1. X. palmifolium Fawc. Fl. PI Jam. 39 (1893); flowers 

 about | in. 1., lateral sepals only slightly keeled at back, lip 

 entire. Epidendrum palmifolium Siv. Prodr. 123 (1788). Den- 

 drobium palmifolium Sw. in Nov. Act. JJpsal. vi. 82 (1799) <fc Fl. 

 Ind. Occ. 1527. Maxillaria decolor Lindl. in Bot. Peg. t. 1549 

 (1832); Hook, in Bot. Mag. t. 3981. M. palmifolia Lindl. 

 Gen. & Sp. Orch. 148 (1832); Griseb. op. cit. 627. (PI. 23, 

 f. 4-7.) Type in Herb. Mus. Brit. 



On trees and rocks ; in fl. Sept. ; Swartz ! Mt. Moses, 2500 ft., J.P. 2315, 

 Syme ! Trelawney, Miss T. M. Barrett. Cuba. 



Plant over 1 ft. high. Pseudobulb cylindrical-ovate, 5 "5-7* 5 cm. 1., 

 with one leaf. Leaves (generally) broadly lanceolate, blade 26-42 cm. 1., 



I 2 



