ORCHIDACE^ 



preserved labellum that was mounted on a small square of stiff 

 paper and protected by a coating of some varnish-like substance. 

 It is presumable that this labellum was saved by Watson from 

 among his dissections at the time the species was described. The 

 type was collected in August 1890 in the Tamasopo Canon, and 

 in the following year from the same locality Pringle secured ma- 

 terial which was in full flower in July.^ Although the plants of 

 the second collection are taller and more robust than the plants 

 of the first collection, they seem to represent Triphora meocicana 

 and to furnish evidence to the effect that the species when well 

 developed is very similar in habit to the northern Triphora tri- 

 anthophora. 



The labellum of Triphora meocicana as exhibited by the type 

 seems to have had three green keels that extend to about the 

 middle, the central one exceeding the lateral ones in length. 

 There appear to be no flattened papillae on the central nerves, 

 but in other Mexican material that I have examined, presum- 

 ably referable to T. meooicana^ the middle nerves break up into 

 a few complanate processes and vanish toward the lower part of 

 the middle lobe in tiny complanate emergences and minute pa- 

 pillae that extend almost to the apex of the middle lobe. If such 

 emergences occurred on the labellum of the type, it is plausible 

 to suppose that they were obliterated by the fusing of the tis- 

 sues under pressure and by the action of the preservative coating 

 already referred to. The lip is 1 cm. long, the middle lobe 4 mm. 

 wide across the broad base ; the lateral lobes are 1 mm. wide. 

 In moistened material of specimens that I have identified as 

 T. meocicana, the measurements slightly exceed those given for 

 the type, but if due allowance is made for shrinkage in dried 



1 It would seem that specimens of this second collection were distributed with labels that 

 gave the name as Pogonia mexicana Wats. n. sp. 



[41] 



