Addisonia 39 



(Plate 100) 

 SOBRALIA SESSILIS 



Sessile-flowered Sobralia 



Native of Guiana 



Family Orchidac^aiS Orchid Family 



Sobralia sessilis Lindl. Bot. Reg. 27: Misc. 3. 1847. 



Stems clustered, up to four feet tall, branched at some of the 

 upper nodes; these branches, developing roots, may be used in 

 propagating new plants. The stems, sheaths, and under surface 

 of the leaf-blades are pubescent with short black spreading hairs. 

 The leaves are alternate, narrowly elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 

 narrowed to an obtuse base, the apex acute; the undulate blades 

 are up to six inches long and two inches wide, and are rather promi- 

 nently seven-nerved beneath. The flowers, about two and a half 

 inches long and broad, are in terminal few-flowered spikes, only one 

 flower appearing at a time, the acute bracts pubescent like the leaf- 

 sheaths. The rose-colored sepals, paler beneath, are oblong-elliptic, 

 abruptly acute, about one and a half inches long, the lateral spread- 

 ing, the dorsal ascending. The petals resemble the sepals in color 

 and shape, but are broader and a trifle shorter. The lip, about as 

 long as the petals, entirely surrounds the column ; the tube is paler 

 below, darkening above into the rich rose-purple of the short limb, 

 which is undulate, crisped and irregularly toothed on the margin; 

 the inside of the tube is a rich magenta. The column is club- 

 shaped, about half as long as the lip, white faintly flushed with 

 rose. The anther is yellow. 



The plant from which this illustration was prepared formed part 

 of a collection of orchids presented in 1900 by Mrs. George Such to 

 the New York Botanical Garden, where it has flowered repeatedly. 

 This, one of the least conspicuous of the genus, was discovered in 

 Demerara by Schomburgk, and flowered in the latter part of 1840 

 at the nurseries of Messrs. Loddiges, in England. 



The genus Sobralia, comprising about sixty species, is found in 

 tropical America from Peru to Guiana and Mexico. The species 

 vary greatly in size, some being but a foot high, while others have 

 stems ten feet tall or more. Some species have small flowers, while 

 in others the flowers are as large and as showy as those of Cattleya 

 lahiata. In color the blossoms range from white to yellow, and 

 from rose and purple to almost a blue. One of the larger and 

 showy kinds is Sobralia macrantha, a native of Mexico and Guate- 



