40 ORCHIDS OF JAMAICA 



14. CORYMBORCHIS Thou.* 



Terrestrial, high-growing herbs, leafy, sometimes branching, 

 with thick, woody roots clustered on the short rhizome. Sheaths 

 decaying below, spathaceous or passing into leaves above. Leaves 

 ample, plaited, chartaceous, petioles sheathing. Flowers medium- 

 sized, subsessile, in short terminal or axillary sub-corymbose 

 panicles. Bracts small, ovate. Sepals and petals oblong. Lip 

 erect from the base of the column, ovate, channelled, with a 

 recurved apical lobe. Column long, erect, at the apex thicker, 

 terminated by two erect lobes or auricles ; stigma at the base 

 of an erect acuminate rostellum ; clinandrium short. Anther 

 erect, narrow, nearly as long as the rostellum, acuminate, 

 cells contiguous ; pollinia granular, attached to a subulate stalk 

 which depends from a peltate gland of the rostellum ; on the fall 

 of the pollinia the rostellum remains 2-fid. Capsule cylindrical, 

 subterete, crowned by the remains of the perianth. 



Species about 13, widely dispersed through the tropical 

 regions of the world, one in West Indies and Mexico. 



C. flava Kuntze Bev. Gen. PI. 658 (1891). — Serapias flava 

 Sw. Prodr. 119 (1788); Neottia flava Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1417 

 (1806). Chloidia flava Beichh. f. in Walp. Ann. Bot. vi. 644 

 (1863) & Beitr. Orel. Centr. Amer. 5 ; Griseh. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 

 643. Corymbis flava Hemsl. in Biol. Centr. Amer. Bot. Hi. 297 

 (1884). (PI. 5, f. 14.) 



In damp woods ; in fl. Oct.-April ; mountains of Clarendon, Swartz ; 

 Hector's River, Manchester, Purdie ! Prior ! Olive River, Christiana 

 district, 3000 ft., Harris I Fl. Jam. 10,398.— Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, 

 Guadeloupe, Mexico. 



Plant to 6 ft. high. Stem about 6 dm. high, simple. Leaves oblong- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, about 7-nerved, blade 18-26 cm. L, 4-6 cm. br. 

 Panicle 4-5 cm. 1., with several lax flowers. Bracts, at base of branches 

 oblong, acuminate, about 1 cm, 1. ; floral ovate, shortly acuminate, 4 mm. 1. 

 Floivers yellow, about | in, 1., subsessile. Ovary cylindrical, about 8 mm. 1. 

 Sepals 7-nerved, oblong-linear, acute, nearly 1*5 cm. L, 2-2-5 mm. br. 

 Petals 5-nerved, oblong-elliptical, somewhat blunt, 1-2-1-3 cm. 1., about 

 3 mm. br. Lip ovate, conduplicate below, ovate-oblong above, as long as 

 the petals. Column (including anther) as long as petals, 



15. TROPIDIA Lindl. 



Like Corymborchis, except in the following particulars : 

 Flowers small, not so lax, in few short dense spikes at the apex 

 of the branches. Bracts linear-subulate. Sepals connivent, 

 median oblong-lanceolate, lateral oblong, connate at the base 



* Corymborchis is the generic name given by Thouars (Orch. lies 

 Afr. t. 37). Corymbis is a uninomial composed from the generic and specific 

 names ; it is, therefore, inadmissible to substitute Corymbis for the true 

 generic appellation. 



