ORCHIDACEM 



157 



cence. Floral bracts deciduous. Flowers small, in a strict ra- 

 ceme. Pedicels slender, 5.5 mm. long. Lateral sepals oblong- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, acute, 7 

 mm. long, 3-3.5 mm. wide. Upper 

 sepal similar, strongly concave. 

 Petals elliptic-oblong, rounded 

 at the tip, 6 mm. long, 3.5-4 

 mm. wide, 3-nerved. Labellum 

 spurred ; spur inflated, narrowed 

 into a slender neck at the open- 

 ing, 3.5-5 mm. long, subequal 

 to the ovary, 2 mm. in diameter 

 near the base ; claw short, about 

 4 mm. long, with a minute lobe 

 on each side near the base of the 

 obversely reniform or somewhat 

 bilobed apical plate ; plate 6-7 

 mm. wide, 2 mm. long, retuse, ner- 

 vose. Under the column on the disc are two raised, obtuse, short 

 carinse. Column stout. 



Calanthe lyroglossa 



This extremely rare plant was originally described by H. G. 

 Reichenbach f. in Otia bot. Hamb. from material collected in 

 Luzon by the United States exploring expedition commanded by 

 Captain Wilkes. Reichenbach's description is inadequate, in fact 

 misleading. The specimen in the Gray herbarium, which passed 

 through his hands and on which he based his description of O. 

 lyroglossa, is in a fair state of preservation. It consists of a leaf 

 and a flower-shoot. I have examined the flower carefully and 

 give herewith a camera lucida drawing. If it were not for the 

 authenticity of the specimen, there would be room to doubt that 

 it was the subject of the brief description which Reichenbach pub- 

 lished in his paper on the orchids collected by the Wilkes expe- 

 dition. The labellum is neither lyrate nor distinctly pandurate 

 according to my conception of these terms, nor is the anterior divi- 

 sion transversely ovate and acute. The Palawan material collected 



