ability to recognize the very elements of diversity within a uni- 

 fied complex. 



Schlechter must have been aware of the problem of this diver- 

 sity within unity, but he fell short in giving the actual details as 

 he perceived them to be present within the whole Epidendrum 

 complex. Indeed, the general structure of the column, the pecu- 

 liar, externally keeled, erect columnar ears or lobes which are the 

 extension of the clinandrium, the totally hidden, persistent 

 anther, are all characters not duplicated within the genus Epi- 

 dendrum. Perhaps plants of Oerstedella can be considered to be 

 somewhat analogous to Dimerandra in columnar structures in 

 as much as both have a cryptic anther. 



An examination of the constituent species of Dimerandra 

 brought several interesting points to the foreground. Epiden- 

 drum stenopetalum, one of the original species assigned by 

 Schlechter to the genus, is described from Jamaica, but the spe- 

 cies is unknown in the West Indies. Unfortunately, the type 

 specimen is no longer extant. Therefore, our information has to 

 come from the published plate, t.3410, of the Botanical Maga- 

 zine, which is part of the original protologue. This drawing, 

 originally made from a living specimen grown in the Glasgow 

 Botanic Garden, shows a perfectly rhombic lip; yet none of the 

 collections which I have examined correspond to that configura- 

 tion. Reichenbach, however, had seen the type before it disap- 

 peared and, as was his practice, he made a drawing of the flower. 

 This drawing also shows a lip which I have not encountered 

 among the numerous specimens examined. There is a remote 

 possibility that my new D. latipetala from Nicaragua may 

 represent the missing D. stenopetala, because vegetatively the 

 plants are identical. The discrepancies, however, found in the 

 morphology of the petals, lip and of the columnar ears, as far as 

 the available informations are concerned, do not permit their 

 union. 



Dimerandra buenaventurae had a remarkable beginning. 

 While Kraenzlin was monographing the genus Telipogon, in 

 1919, he found a single unattached flower in the Reichenbach 

 Herbarium, which he, in spite of the unusual characters for a 

 Telipogon, described as a new member of that genus. Garay in 



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