ORCHIDACEM 49 



able from the American species by its slender pseudobulbs, which 

 are leafy near the top, and by its much smaller floral bracts. 

 Messrs. King and Pantling in their work on the Orchids of the 

 Sikkim Himalaya are inclined to consider the two conspecific, 

 but rely more on circumstantial evidence than on a comparison of 

 authentic material, and their suggestion that Lindley's plant, of 

 which a plate was published in the Botanical Register, really came 

 from the Himalaya, and not, as reported, from Brazil, is not at all 

 acceptable. That Lindley should have reduced the Cymbidium 

 ? hituberculatum of Hooker's Exotic Flora to L. elata is not suffi- 

 cient evidence that the two are really conspecific as Messrs. King 

 and Pantling are led to believe. The plates in the Botanical Re- 

 gister and in the Exotic Flora are both faithful characterizations 

 so far as the habit is concerned of the species they represent, and 

 •while there may be reasons, along broad lines, to combine the 

 Asiatic and the American species, their differences are sufficient 

 to prevent confusion, while their geographical position accentuates 

 their individuahty. 



The first plants of Lijoaris elata found in the United States 

 were collected in 1903 by James E. Layne, who discovered the 

 present variety near Everglade, on the last expedition he made 

 before his death. These plants were sent to North Easton, but 

 failed to mature the flower shoots which were just pushing up, 

 so that only a provisional determination of the species could be 

 attempted. In 1904 another collection of plants was made, pre- 

 sumably from the same locality visited by Layne, and from these 

 the material was drawn which renders a sure diagnosis possible, 

 and furnishes the accompanying plate. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



I have seen specimens from the localities here indicated : 



Florida : Fahkahatchie Swamp, near Everglade, July, 1903, J. E. 

 Layne; June 11, 1904, A. A. Eaton (no. 1133^). 



Porto Rico : Prope Faburoa in sylva primseva ad Guayabota, Sep- 

 tember 26, 1896, P. Sintenis (no. 5150). — Prope Utuado in 



