PHYSURUS VENUSTULUS 



Physurus venustulus Ames in J. D. Smith Enum. PL Guate- 

 mal. pt. VII. p. 50, no. 8591 (1905), nomen; Orchidace^, Fasc. ii. 

 p. 261 (1908). 



Plants among the smallest of the genus, 6-10 cm. high, erect or 

 ascending from an elongated fleshy creeping rhizome. Leaves 

 membranaceous, nervose, lanceolate, acute, 1-3 cm. long, 

 5-10 mm. wide; petiole slender, forming a sheath at base, which 

 loosely clothes the stem. Stei?i glabrous, succulent. Raceme few- 

 or many-flowered ; rhackis smooth. Floral bracts foliose, lanceo- 

 late, acute, equalling or exceeding the ovaries. Flowers subglo- 

 bular, white, about 3 mm. long. Lateral sepals oblong-lanceolate, 

 1 -nerved, obtuse, 3.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide. Dorsal sepal 

 lanceolate, obtuse, 1 -nerved. Petals linear-lanceolate, 1 -nerved, 

 asymmetrical, 3.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide. Labellum globular- 

 saccate at base, dilated into a suborbicular or subreniform apicu- 

 late plate above the concave mesochil; sac 3-nerved, 2 mm. long, 

 at base 2 mm. wide ; mesochil 2 mm. long ; plate or epichil 1.5 mm. 

 long, 2 mm. wide, with a transverse membranous ridge betw^een 

 it and the mesochil. 



The type was collected by H. von Tuerckheim (no. 8591) 

 at Cubilquitz, Guatemala, at an altitude of three hundred and 

 fifty metres, in December, 1903. My material appears to be con- 

 specific with an unnamed specimen in the herbarium at Kew, 

 collected by R. Tate (no. 464) in Nicaragua, in 1867-8. In habit 

 the plants resemble depauperate specimens of Physurus querce- 

 ticola Lindl. They appear to have been flaccid when alive, and 

 somewhat succulent. I have been unable to discover that this 

 species has been heretofore described. 



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