A RARE EPIDENDRUM FROM COSTA RICA 
BY 
Oakes AMES 
Ture ientiry of Mpidendrum incomptum Reichb.f. 
remained obscure for many years following its publica- 
tion in 1852, because in 1889 the Warscewicz type from 
Panama was sealed up in the Reichenbach Herbarium 
and remained inaccessible until 1914. Prior to 1914, the 
only available specimen on which to form a conception 
of the species was the Godman and Salvin plant collected 
in 1862 at Coban in Guatemala, and preserved in the 
Kew Herbarium. This specimen was tentatively deter- 
mined by Reichenbach as probably being referable to 
E.. incomptum. The original description, aside from com- 
paring the species with J. arbuscula Lindl., failed to 
clarify it sufficiently. We now know that 2. incomptum 
is anative of Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama, char- 
acterized by extreme rarity and sparse distribution. 
Epidendrum incomptum Reichenbach filius in 
Bot. Zeit. 10 (Oct. 15, 1852) 7383;—Lindley Fol. Orch. 
Kpid. (1853) p. 87—Reichenbach filius in Walp. Ann. 
6 (1862) 410; Beitr. Orch. Centr.- Am. (1866) 88—Hems- 
ley in Gard. Chron. n.s., 11 (1879) 367; in Godman & 
Salvin Biol. Centr.-Am. Bot. 8 (1888) 282—Pittier in 
Anal. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica 1 (1887) 75—Schlechter in 
Beihette Bot. Centralbl. 86, Abt. 2 (1918) 463—Ames, 
Hubbard & Schweinfurth Genus Epidendrum (1986) 108. 
Plants much branched ; conspicuously sheathed, with 
two to three approximate, alternate leaves on the upper 
part of each branch; floriferous branches 3-85 cm. long. 
Leaves oblong-elliptic, 8.5-12.5 em. long, 2.5—-8.2 em. 
wide. Racemes terminal, lax, 4-15 cm. long, bearing 
from three to twenty distichously arranged, fleshy, green- 
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