cept that its floral bracts distinctly surpass the flowers 
instead of equalling them. The racemes of Sprranthes 
bracteolaris are described as secund, but they might bet- 
ter be termed quaquaversal with a secund tendency. A 
strange coincidence in connection with the two forms is 
that N.michuacana is described as ‘*planta odoratissima”’ 
and that Spiranthes bracteolaris has strongly fragrant 
vegetative parts in the dried type specimen twenty-five 
vears after it was collected! Like MNeottia michuacana, 
this species blooms in the state of Michuacan in October. 
Spiranthes michuacana appears to be widely distrib- 
uted in Mexico. 
Spiranthes minutiflora 4. Richard & Galeotti in 
Comptes Rend. Acad. Sci. Par. 18 (1844) 518, nomen; 
in Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3, 3 (1845) 32. 
Spiranthes nutantiflora Schlechter in Fedde Repert. 
2 (1906) 131. 
Mesadenus minutifiorus Schlechter in Beihette Bot. 
Centralbl. 87, Abt. 2 (1920) 368. 
In 1920, the late Dr. Schlechter in his monograph 
of the Spiranthinae (Beihette Bot. Centralbl. 837, Abt. 2 
(1920) ) created many new genera for species traditionally 
regarded as representatives of Spiranthes. Most of these, 
if not all of them, are based on recondite characters of 
the column and_ pollinia and are not readily observable. 
Among these genera is the concept Mesadenus which we 
consider best relegated to the synonymy of Spiranthes. 
A series of specimens from Hidalgo and Distrito 
Federal, Mexico, recently sent by Erik M. Ostlund are 
surely referable to S.minutifiora. They show a general 
similarity to each other, but embrace a rather wide range 
of vegetative characters, since they vary from about 8.5—- 
20 cm. in height and most (but not all) of them show at 
their base withered remains of oblong-elliptical long-peti- 
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