A RARE SOBRALIA FROM COSTA RICA 
BY 
OakEs AMES 
Sobralia pleiantha Schlechter in Fedde Repert. 
83 (1906) 79; in Fedde Repert. Beihefte 19 (1923) 81. 
In 1921, H. Prrrier discovered the type of Sobralia 
pleiantha in a forest near Boruca in southwestern Costa 
Rica. When Rudolf Schlechter described it, fifteen years 
later, he referred to the unusual nature of the inflores- 
cence in having more than one flower expanded at a time. 
In Sobralia, usually, the flowers are produced singly, in 
succession, each flower remaining in perfection for a very 
few hours, 
The plants attain a height of 8 decimeters or more, 
each slender stem bearing as many as ten elliptic-lanceo- 
late, acuminate leaves which are articulated to elongated, 
closely appressed cylindrical, smooth sheaths. At the 
summit of the mature stems the flowers appear in an 
abbreviated raceme with complanate, distichous bracts. 
Kach raceme produces as many as ten flowers. The lower- 
most flowers expand first and are in perfection while the 
terminal flowers are still in bud. 
The sepals and petals are from 8-8.3 em. long and 
about 1 em. wide. The labellum, equally long, and about 
2 cm. wide, is closely beset, along the central veins, with 
numerous, crowded, glandular processes. These processes 
are simple, bifurcate or several-times divided, those near 
the apex of the lamina being strongly complanate ; those 
near the base being crowded into a pair of abbreviated 
keels; the margin of the labellum is finely denticulate 
almost to the base. The column is typical of the genus 
and attains a length of about 8 cm. 
In the original description the labellum is described 
as being cuneate-obovate. In a drawing received from 
[47 ] 
