CONTPxTBUTIONS FROM THE GRAY HERBARimi OF HARVARD 

 UNIVERSITY, NEW SERIES, No. XVIII. 



Presented by B. L. Robinson, January 10, 1900. Received January 26, 1900. 



I. — NEW SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF MEXICAN 



PLANTS. 



By J. M. Greenman. 



Spiranthes Nelsonii. Aphyllous : roots clustered, tuberous, densely 

 covered with long hairs : stems 4 to 5.5 dm. high, clothed below with 

 oblong-ovate short-acuminate white scarious overlapping glabrous nervate 

 bracts, these somewhat more remote toward the inflorescence, glabrous 

 below, above and throughout the inflorescence more or less glandular- 

 pubescent: spikes oblong, 6 to 10 cm. long, about 2.5 cm. broad, rather 

 closely flowered ; bracts ovate, acuminate, shorter than the flowers : 

 flowers sessile, about 2 cm. long, apparently white ; the perianth later be- 

 coming reflexed or more or less folded on itself ; the outer lateral 

 divisions of the perianth or lateral sepals oblong, slightly expanded above 

 the middle, 1.1 to 1.2 cm. long, 3.5 mm. broad, obtuse, the upper sepal 

 similar but slightly larger ; the inner latei'al divisions of the perianth or 

 lateral petals oblong-spatulate, about 1 cm. in length, obtuse, much nar- 

 rowed toward the base; lip oblong-ligulate, 1.3 to 1.4 cm. long, 4 mm. 

 broad, subtruncate or obtusish at the apex, cuneate at the base, callous- 

 tuberculate on each side just above the base, bearing in the lower half on 

 either side near the margins a thick or fleshy pubescent ridge ; clinan- 

 drium pubescent along the free surface ; anther broadly ovate, 3 mm. 

 long, obtuse : beak of the stigma short-oblong, minutely 2-toothed at the 

 apex ; gland linear-oblong. — Collected by E. W. Nelson, between Rio 

 Verde and Panixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, altitude 125 to 370 m., 25 February, 

 1895, no. 2384. 



Spiranthes Prixglei, Watson, var. minor. Flowers green or 

 greenish white, one-half to two-thirds as large as in the species proper ; 

 in technical characters and in general habit corresponding well with the 

 type specimen of the species. — Collected by C. G. Pringle in grassy 

 fields near Jalapa, altitude 1,225 m., 17, 21 May, 1899, no. 8197. 



