48 ORCHIDS OF JAMAICA 



19. POLYSTACHYA Hook. 



Epiphytic herbs. Stems leafy, short, sheathed at the base, 

 sometimes thickened into slender pseudobulbs. Leaves few, 

 in two ranks, oblong-ligulate, many- nerved but not plaited, 

 contracted at the base into sheaths and jointed with them. 

 Peduncle terminal, with a few sheaths above the leaf. Raceme 

 terminal on the leafy stem, simple, or several short racemes 

 along a common rachis forming a narrow lax panicle. Flowers 

 small. Bracts small. Sepals connivent, median free, lateral 

 broader, at the base attached to the foot of the column. Petals 

 narrow. Lip on the upper side of the flower, jointed with the 

 foot of the column, at the base contracted, incumbent, then 

 erect ; 3-lobed ; lateral lobes but little prominent, erect, median 

 spreading or recurved, undivided. Column very short, not 

 winged, produced at the base into a foot; clinandrium short, 

 truncate. Anther terminal, opercular, incumbent, very convex^ 

 1 -celled or imperfectly 2-celled ; pollinia 4, waxy, broadly ovate, 

 lightly ad pressed in pairs, or connate into 2, not appendiculate^ 

 affixed to a short stalk or gland. Capsule oblong. 



Species about 170, natives chiefly of tropical and south 

 Africa, some of India and Malaya, a few of tropical America. 



Flowers with very prominent chin 1. P. minuta. 



Flowers smaller, with chin not prominent 2. P. minor. 



1. P. minuta Britton in Small Fl. S.E. Vn. St. 328 (1903); 

 lateral lobes of lip oblong, sometimes subfalcate, obtuse ; sinus 

 above middle of lip ; callus extending along the median nerve from 

 the base to the middle.— P. luteola Hooh. Exot. Fl 1. 103 (1825) ; 

 Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 73 (in part, excl. syn. P. mauritiana) ; 

 Griseh. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 628. P. extinctoria & P. luteola Beichb.f. 

 in Walp. Ann. Bot. vi. 638, 639 (1861). Helleborine ramosa 

 kc. Plum. PI. Amer. (Burm.) t. 185,/. 1. Epidendrum minutum 

 Auhl. PL Guian. ii. 824 (1775). Dendrobium polystachyum 

 Sw. in Vet. Handl. StockJi. xxi. 247 (1800) ; Lindl. Coll. Bot. t 20 

 (non Thouara & A. Bich.). Cranichis luteola Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ.^ 

 1433(1806). (PI. 7, f. 4, 5.) 



On trees and rocks ; in fl. and fr. Nov. to April ; Wilson ! Fairfield,. 

 Wullschlaegel 1055 (partly) ! J.P. 21, 22, Morris ! Moneague, Lady Blake 1 

 Content Road, Campbell I Mavis Bank, 2000 ft., 7765, Harris I— Guh&, 

 Hispaniola, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Eustatius, Dominica, Martinique,. 

 St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad, Florida, Mexico, Guatemala, 

 Colombia, B. Guiana, Surinam, F. Guiana, Brazil, Peru. 



Plant 8-14 in. high. Pseudobulb about 3 cm. 1. Leaves acute or 

 somewhat obtuse, sometimes slightly oblique, 10-20 cm. 1., 12-28 mm. br. 

 Panicle 1*5-3 dm. 1., generally longer than the leaves. Bracts triangular,, 

 acuminate, 2 mm. 1. Flowers yellowish-green, perianth ^ in. 1., and 

 somewhat broader ; buds very oblix^uely 3-cornered, apex somewhat acute. 



