ORCHIDACE^ 



retusum labelli rotundatus farinosus, posterior in medio unguis 

 multo minor. Gynostemium globosum, in visu apodum. 



Plant rather slender, about 40 cm. tall. Rhizome ±7 mm. thick, 

 stout, terete, woody, clothed with imbricating scarious sheaths 

 that become fibrous. Roots numerous, fibrous, freely branching, 

 very slender, up to .5 mm. thick. Stem entirely concealed by leaf 

 sheaths, suberect (from the rhizome). Leaf sheaths ±3.5 cm. long, 

 tubular, striate, chartaceous, bordered by a narrow brown band 

 at the summit. Leaves ±18 cm. long, 8 mm. broad, the lowest and 

 uppermost smaller, distichous, linear, gradually narrowed to an 

 obtuse apex which is obliquely and obscurely bilobed, compli- 

 cate at the sessile base, thick, coriaceous, many-nerved on the 

 upper surface but only the mid-nerve prominent beneath. Inflo- 

 rescences one or two, about 20 cm. long, very slender, suberect, 

 produced from the upper internode and usually much surpass- 

 ing the leaves. Rachis rather densely white tomentose. Bracts 

 ±3.5 mm. long, lanceolate, upwardly curved and unciform from 

 a reflexed or spreading base, strongly conduplicate in the dried 

 specimen, glabrous. Flowers minute, approximate, scarcely 6 mm. 

 across. Sepals somewhat tomentose without. Lateral sepals about 

 2.5 mm. long, scarcely 2 mm. wide, ovate, slightly oblique, some- 

 what acute and dorsally carinate at the apex, concave, three- 

 nerved. Dorsal sepal about 2.5 mm. long, 1.4 mm. broad, oblong, 

 obtuse, three-nerved. Petals about 2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, 

 linear-oblong, somewhat broader above, broadly rounded at the 

 apex. Lip about 2.5 mm. long and about as broad, orbicular in 

 outline ; claw short, broad, abruptly dilated into the lamina, which 

 is semi-orbicular, shallowly bilobed and has an abrupt narrow 

 indentation in the middle of each lateral margin, farinose and 

 thickened except for a broad zone along the lateral margins; just 

 below the retuse apex of the lip there is a large, low, rounded, 



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