HOLOTHRIX. 115 
patches wherever it is found. The greatest enthusiast would scarcely 
call it pretty, and, like many plain-featured plants, it is always there,— 
in its season; not tantalizing the botanist, like the coy beauties of the 
fields, by a total disappearance for several seasons, but ready to be 
gathered and studied any year it may be needed. 
PruatE 23.—A. Var. scapra. Fig. 1, sepals x 4 diameters; 2, 3, lip x 4; 4, 
flower x 4; 5, petals x 4; 6, column, front view; 7, column, tilted back, to show 
stigma; 8, pollinia with single gland; 10, section of leaf; 11, leaf-scales of upper 
surface ; 12, section of flower through the middle, showing a, anther, s, stigma; 
15, a lip with seven lobes, variously enlarged. 
B. Var. utrsuta. Fig. 9, section of leaf, magnified; 13, a flower, side view x 3; 
14, a flower, front view x 3. 
3. Holothrix condensata, Sonder, in Linnea, vol. xix. (1847), 
p. 76.—Three to six in. high, all parts, except the flowers, pilose with 
fines preading hairs; leaves ovate-orbicular, subacute, patent, somewhat 
fleshy, 1-2 in. long; scape robust, usually curved ; spike about half as 
long as the scape, dense, secund; flowers quite glabrous, 3-5 lines long ; 
bracts ovate-acuminate, shorter than the ovary; sepals ovate, acute, 
oblique at base; petals narrow-oblong, obtuse, half as long again as 
the sepals; lip equalling the petals, with an oblong concave limb, 
three-cleft at the apex, the lobes equal, blunt, and spreading, with a 
straight thin spur at base about half its own length ; clinandrium very 
broadly rounded at the apex; the single gland of the pollinia with 
three sharp teeth ; ovary much curved; capsule straight, erect, 
3-4 lines long. 
Has. Clefts of rocks with a south aspect, Table Mt., 2800 ft., &c.; fl. Dec.; 
Bolus, 4905, &e. 
The petals and lip are a greenish-yellow. It is well distinguished 
from H. villosa by its thrice larger flowers, more robust habit, more 
fleshy leaves, and less soft pubescence. The actual size of the plant, 
like that of H. villosa, is extremely variable, but it is usually much 
shorter than the last-named. 
Prater 22. — Fig. 8, flower, side view x 3 diameters; 9, lip, column, and ovary, 
x 6; 10, column, viewed from below, the clinandrium partially opened to show the 
anther, mag.; 11, the pollinia and gland, mag. 
4. Holothrix parvifolia, Lindley, Gen. d Sp. Orch. (1835), p. 288. 
—Krect, slender, retrorsely hirsute on the scape, sparingly hispid on 
the other parts, except the petals, which are glabrous, 4-8 in. high ; 
leaves one or two, roundish, very thick and fleshy, coarsely hirsute, 
withered during flowering, apparently not more than 4 or 5 lin. long; 
Scape straight, somewhat stout, spike rather lax, the flowers turned 
every way, and usually deflexed; bracts ovate, acute, tipped near the 
apex with about three twisted hairs nearly as long as the bract; side 
sepals obliquely ovate, the middle one oblong, acute ; petals linear- 
