1. Habenaria alata Hooker, Exotic Flora 8 (1826) 
t. 169. 
Habenaria stricta A.Richard & Galeotti in Ann. 
Sci. Nat. ser. 3,3 (1845) 29; Ames, Orch. 4 (1910) t. 
78, fig. II. 
Habenaria platantheroides Schlechter in Beihefte 
Bot. Centralbl. 36, Abt. 2 (1918) 372. 
The Honduranian specimen 
which I have referred to Habenaria 
alata Hook. differs from the type 
in having asimple labellum without 
a trace of basal protuberances or 
lobes. In this regard it resembles 
the Mexican H. stricta A. Rich. & 
Gal. and the Costa Rican species 
for which Schlechter proposed the 
name H.platantheroides. In recent 
studies of the Middle American 
Habenarias I have become con- 
vinced that in the recognition of 
segregates from H. alata the form 
of the labellum has been relied on 
too much and specific rank assigned 
to plants hardly entitled to recog- 
nition as varieties, HZ. stricta and 
H.platantheroides being in this cat- 
egory. Untortunately the identity 
of H. strictais revealed only through 
analytical drawings preserved in the 
herbarium of the Muséum d’ Hist- 
oire Naturelle in Paris. The dried 
specimen has disappeared and in its 
absence the analytical drawings are 
the only evidence on which to in- 
terpret the original description and to form a conception 
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