STUDIES IN AMERICAN ORCHIDS Il’ 
A NEW GENUS FROM THE COLOMBIAN AMAZONIA 
BY 
Lestige A. Garay? 
TIME and again, the interpretation of orchid genera has 
caused grave problems, since we often find that many of 
the species which are assigned to a particular genus are 
either atypical or obviously do not belong to the concept 
in question. Recently, I encountered a problem of this 
nature, which I wish to discuss here. 
In 1934, Mansteld described Hybochilus Huebnert, 
which he based on a collection sent in by Mr. Huebner 
from the Amazon region of Colombia. At first, it ap- 
peared to him that this collection might represent a new 
generic concept, but for some unknown reason he finally 
decided to include it inthe genus Hybochilus. This spe- 
cies has subsequently been all but unknown, and its 
nomenclatorial type was destroyed during the Second 
World War. 
While studying a number of collections from Colom- 
bia in the Ames Herbarium, I found two undetermined 
specimens which appeared to be quite peculiar in their 
1 Previous numbers of this series were published in the Canadian 
Journal of Botany, vol. 34: (1956), pp. 241-260, 721-748. 
? Assistant Curator of the Herbarium, Department of Botany, Uni- 
versity of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; at present, a Guggenheim Fel- 
low at the Orchid Herbarium of Oakes Ames, Harvard University. 
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