was rather careless and inconsistent in the allocation of 
the species. 
The circumscription of a section composed of seem- 
ingly similar flowering plants in itself is not a difficult or 
tedious task, but the delimitation of the species assigned 
to a given section is altogether a different matter. This 
latter approach demands a careful examination of all type 
specimens along with the associated descriptive data. 
Living material must be studied in the field and in cul- 
tivation, and compared with the types. Camera lucida 
drawings of the floral parts of type specimens as well as 
of additional material must be prepared for comparative 
purposes. Data presented in this paper, and those to be 
published in the future, are assembled through these 
methods. 
The plants of the Section Cucullata are endemic to the 
Andes of South America and grow in the cold and humid 
climate found at about 8,000 meters. Their range is from 
Venezuela southward to northern Peru, with an obvious 
concentration in Keuador. In the mid-nineteenth cen- 
tury, several collectors shipped plants by the thousands 
to England and Europe, which formed the basis for many 
of the herbarium specimens. These plants are relatively 
common in living collections today, although as, ex- 
pected, in rather small numbers, for repeated field trips 
to previously lucrative areas vividly tell of the encroach- 
ment by man. There is no doubt that these plants will 
continue to be found, but certainly not in the presently 
accessible areas known to current collectors. 
Because of the rather peculiar relationship between the 
‘allus of the lip and base of the column, I entertained 
the thought that the Section Cucullata should be ex- 
cluded from the genus Oncidium. In all of the species, 
the base of the column has a tumid member on either 
side projecting forward and enclosing the base of the 
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