BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CampripGr, Massacuusetts, Auausr 12, 1933 No. 9 
A NEW GENUS 
OF THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE 
BY 
OAKES AMES 
THE ORIGINAL COLLECTION of Pleurothallis floripecten 
Reichb.f., which I believe represents a new genus, was 
made by Hermann Wagener near Jaji in Venezuela and 
was described by H. G. Reichenbach in Bonplandia 2 
(1854) 25. So far as I know, only two specimens were 
studied by Reichenbach when he described the species. 
One of these is preserved in the Reichenbachian herba- 
rium in Vienna; the other was presented to John Lindley 
by Reichenbach and is preserved in the Lindley Herba- 
rium at Kew. Later, what Reichenbach thought to be the 
same species was represented by a living:specimen in the 
collection of W. Wilson Saunders at Reigate, England. 
Saunders obtained this specimen from M. Linden of 
Brussels, but whether or not it came originally from 
Venezuela is not known. 
The relationship between Pleurothallis floripecten and 
its closest allies has heretofore never been thoroughly in- 
vestigated. There are two substantial reasons why this 
should be so. First, P. flortpecten has proved to be ex- 
ceedingly rare; secondly, those species which resemble it 
closely have also proved to be rare. ‘Two of these species 
which were originally assigned to Lepanthes by Barbosa 
Rodriguez, were transferred by Cogniaux in Martius’ 
[1] 
