NOTES ON THE GENUS SOBRALIA 
BY 
CHARLES SCHWEINFURTH 
THE FOLLOWING NOTES on Sobralia include reductions 
occasioned by a critical study of Peruvian orchidaceae and 
the description of a new species of that genus from Costa 
Rica. 
Sobralia dichotoma Ruiz & Pavon Syst. Veg. FI. 
Peruv. et Chil. (1798) 2832—Poeppig & Endlicher Nov. 
Gen. ac Sp. Pl. 1 (1885) 54. 
Sobralia Mandonu Reichenbach filius Xen. Orch. 2 
(1873) 175, t. 175, fig. I, 1. 
In erecting his new concept, Sobralia Mandonu, 
Reichenbach used as his major point of distinction from 
S. dichotoma the fact that the peduncles were simple and 
straight, whereas those of S.dichotoma were dichotomous 
and fractiflex. To be sure, the inflorescences in the iso- 
types of S. Mandoni in the Herbarium of Oakes Ames 
and in the Gray Herbarium are simple, as well as in sev- 
eral Peruvian collections apparently referable to that spe- 
cies. One Peruvian collection of this complex (7. L. 
Herrera 3230), however, bears one simple peduncle and 
one dichotomous peduncle, thus indicating that the char- 
acter is a variable one. Furthermore, in all collections of 
this complex, whether they have a simple or dichotomous 
inflorescence, the rachis is more or less fractiflex. 
In both concepts the petals appear to have a more or 
less undulate upper margin. 
In his description of 8S. Mandonu Reichenbach says 
that the lip is simple, whereas he implies that the lip of 
S. dichotoma is 8-lobed, a character which is definitely im- 
puted to S. dichotoma by Lindley. (Fol. Orch. Sobralia 
(1854) p.2) However, Poeppig and Endlicher (I.c.) make 
[ 196 ] 
