automatically sets the limits of the diversity which logistically 
can be expected to occur within a genus. 
When Schlechter described the limits of his subtribe Spiran- 
thinae, he characterized the group as having fasciculate roots, 
basal leaves, vaginate scape and resupinate flowers. It is true 
that most of the species fall within this broad outline. A 
decumbent or a short rhizome Is present, however, in the genera 
Helonoma and Hapalorchis, as well as in a number of species of 
the genera Pelexia and Sarcoglottis. Non-resupinate flowers are 
known to occur randomly in the genera Beadlea, Hapalorchis, 
Pseudocranichis and Nothostele. 
This last mentioned generic name stands for an unusual and 
rare plant from Brazil. The column is represented by an 
incomplete fusion of the filament of the stamen and the style 
with the terminal, confluent stigmata. The pollinia with distinct 
caudicles are attached to a small, round viscidium. 
Among the genera with terminal stigmata, Sacoila must be 
singled out. This genus originally was established by Rafinesque 
in 1837, as one of his many routine segregates of the then all- 
encompassing Neottia. It is noteworthy that not even Schlechter 
noticed the remarkable structural differences between the plants 
of Sacoila and Stenorrhynchos. In the former genus the flowers 
have terminal stigmata, long, decurrent column-foot with free 
tips and the lateral sepals are spur-like; in the latter genus the 
flowers, however, are noted for their anterior stigmata, for the 
oblique base of the column is without a distinct foot, and the 
lateral sepals are never spur-like. 
For a long time I was aware of the bizarre structure of the 
flowers which were described as Cranichis thysanochila. It has 
been assigned to Cranichis most probably because of the non- 
resupinate flowers. The resemblance, however, ends here. The 
peculiar tear-drop-like column has a substipitate, oblique base 
rapidly expanding upwards, truncate at the top. The two stig- 
mata are separate, saddle-shaped on the sides of the truncate 
rostellum. In that particular aspect, the column is reminiscent of 
the genus Altensteinia. The rest of the floral structures as well as 
the entire plant is clearly that of the Spiranthinae. Hence, I 
propose the name Pseudocranichis. Plants of this unusual genus 
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