morphic species. 
EPIDENDRUM ONCIDIOIDES ALLIANCE 
The constituents of this alliance present several 
marked lines of variation: in the stature of plant, in the 
character of inflorescence, in verrucosity of the ovary, and 
in the presence or absence of auriculate emergences of the 
column, The extremes of these variations would seem to 
indicate good species and have been so recognized, but 
the presence of intergrades and specimens showing a com- 
bination of characters point to one variable species. The 
trends of variation or the linkage of characters, however, 
render recognizable a typical form and five varieties. 
The typical form of Mpidendrum oncidioides as de- 
scribed and figured by Lindley from a plant sent to him 
by Richard Harrison, probably from South America, is 
a tall plant with a panicle about three feet long. The 
pseudobulb is ellipsoid and bears three ensiform leaves 
nearly two feet long and two inches wide. The inflores- 
cence is an open panicle with the widely divaricate branch- 
es distant and not very long. The flowers are shown as 
being about three centimeters in diameter. ‘The sepals 
and petals are dull chrome yellow, heavily blotched to- 
ward their apex with a dull red-brown and are greenish 
yellow on their exterior surface. The lip isa dull chrome 
yellow with short brown-purple lines on the mid-lobe. 
The sepals are shown as cuneate-oblanceolate with obtuse 
tips. The petals are round-spatulate with a narrow claw 
and are inrolled on the apical margin. The lip is distinetly 
3-lobed with a well-marked isthmus, with the lateral lobes 
erect, clasping the column and oblong, their apices round- 
ed and the mid-lobe is suborbicular and cuspidate (due 
to the inrolling of the apical margins). 
The following synopsis sets forth briefly the charac- 
ters of the concepts that have formerly been considered 
[94 | 
