Nasu: Costa RICAN ORCHIDS 119 
garden at that place it was. Mr. Biolley secured it at Uricuajo, at 
an altitude of about 200 m., on the Pacific coast, in January of the 
same year. 
The species was originally found by George U. Skinner along 
the shores of Lake Izabal, near Izabal, Guatemala. He sent 
plants in 1837 to England, where they flowered the following year, 
furnishing the material from which the original description and 
illustration referred to above were drawn. The flowering of this 
plant caused considerable excitement among the orchidologists of 
that day, as it was the first member of the genus known in which 
the inflorescence was not borne at the apex of the leafy stem. In 
this species, as well as in several others, the inflorescence is borne 
upon a leafless stem arising from the base of the leafy pseudobulb. 
Mr. Skinner remarks (Batem. Orch. Mex. & Guat. /. c.) that 
the plant is known in its native country as ‘‘ quartorones,” in allu- 
sion to the four colors of its blossoms. The flowers of the plants 
which have blossomed in the New York Botanical Garden have 
undergone remarkable changes in color as they faded, the white 
of the lip passing into yellow and buff, and various combinations 
of these, produced by stripes, spots and blendings. 
Elleanthus caricoides sp. nov. (PLATE 7) 
A densely tufted plant, smooth and glabrous with the excep- 
tions noted below, with numerous gracefully drooping: slender 
stems. Stems 4 dm. long or less, round, about 1.5 mm. in diam- 
eter at the base, sparsely spotted with purple : leaves 5-7 ; sheaths 
grooved, much shorter than the blades, spotted with purple, the 
lower 2 or sometimes 3 soon turning brown, bladeless or with but 
rudimentary blades; blades flat, about 7-nerved, erect, somewhat 
twisted and recurved above the base, linear-lanceolate to linear, 
shining, long-acuminate at the apex, narrowed toward the “pate 
1-2 dm. long, the lowermost sometimes a little shorter and the 
one immediately below the inflorescence often but 4-6 cm. rons 
7-8 mm. wide: inflorescence 2-3 cm. long, on a peduncle ess 
than 1.5 cm. long, the bracts, the lowermost one of ge is ae 
ally empty, ovate-lanceolate, green, apparently spira 0 Ae 
long-acuminate, 2-3 times as long as the flower, nearly erect an 
somewhat recurved above the middle ; flowers, including the sae 
which is 2—3 mm. long and more or less 5, aap SPP oh 
black-brown hairs, about 1 cm. long, gibbous on one side: ae 
sepals 7-8 mm. long, about 3 mm. wide, oblong to oblong-oval, 
