condition in his American material or else unwittingly 
used abnormal specimens in emphasizing a diagnostic 
point. 
The value attributed to resupination when this pe- 
culiarity is associated with ‘‘complete geographic isola- 
tion’’ disappears when we find Malaaxis monophyllos with 
non-resupinate flowers and its variant with resupinate 
flowers, growing in Japan. In my herbarium there are 
two specimens of Malaais monophyllos, collected by 
Kenzo Shiota (No. 2222), on Mount Hakuso. Both spe- 
cimens bear resupinate flowers and would pass without 
question for the New World plant if the geographical 
source were unknown. In the Gray Herbarium there is a 
specimen from Hokkaido, collected near Furebetsu, on 
which the flowers are non-resupinate. In all of these Jap- 
anese specimens the distinctive, thickened margin on the 
basal half of the labellum, a definite characteristic of the 
species, is present. This thickening, with some of the 
cells containing raphides, passes into short keels, one on 
each side of the disc, beneath each membranaceous, in- 
rolled lateral lobe. This thickened margin is also well- 
developed in New World specimens of Malaais mono- 
phyllos and is also distinguished by large cells containing 
raphides. The constancy of this thickened margin; the 
keels arising from it and the cells containing raphides are, 
in my estimation, strong characters aiding in the recogni- 
tion of Malaais monophyllos, and are of far greater diag- 
nostic value as a specific guide than geographic isolation 
or differences in the length of the pedicels, capsules and 
flower-buds or differences in the position of the labellum ; 
differences which are hardly reliable criteria for specific 
segregation in the Orchidaceae. (cf. plate on p. 177) 
If the form of the labellum is studied in a series of 
specimens taken from the entire range of Malaais mono- 
phyllos, it will be found that there are slight differences 
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