BRACHIONIDIUM 77 



the apex into long tails, lateral connate nearly to apex. Petals 

 similar to sepals. Lip small, jointed to foot of column. Column 

 short, broad, erect, with a foot ; clinandrium 3-lobed. Anther 

 opercular, incumbent, somewhat flat, cordate, indistinctly 2-celled ; 

 pollinia 6, elongated, clavate, in two bundles. Capsule obovoid. 

 Species 5 or 6, natives of the Andes of Bolivia and Colombia, 

 of Mt. Roraima in British Guiana, and of the West Indies. 



B. Sheppingii Holfe in Kew Bulletin, 1893, 4. — B. parvum 

 Cogn. in Fedde Bepert. vi. 307 (1909), as regards the Jamaican 

 plant. (PI. 12.) 



Amongst mosses on banks, or on trees ; in fl. Oct.-Dec. ; below 

 ]\Iount Moses, 3000 ft., J.P. 2361 Syme ! Harris 1 Regale, below Hardware 

 Gap, A. Moore ! M. Jam, 7802, 10,474.— Grenada, Martinique, St. Kitts. r* 



Plant 1-1^ in. high from the creeping or climbing rhizome. Secondary 

 stem very short, 6-12 mm. 1., enclosed by scarious truncate apiculate 

 sheaths. Leaf oblanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate, narrowed into the 

 petiole, 3-denticulate at apex, 7-nerved ; blade 1*5-3 cm. 1., 4-12 mm. br. 

 Peduncle slender, longer than the leaf, 1*5-3 '5 cm., springing from a 

 scarious bract, bearing an acuminate sheathing bract at or below the 

 middle, 3-4-5 mm. 1., and a third at the apex, 2-3 mm. 1., tubular, 

 spreading, enclosing the short thick pedicel of the flower and a slender 

 pedicel 4 mm. 1., bearing an aborted bract. Flowers claret-coloured, 

 sometimes tinged with tawny-yellow on the sepals, perianth 1 in. 1. 

 Sepals, median oval, acuminate, caudate, 1*2 cm. 1. without tail, 3-4 mm. br. ; 

 tail reaching nearly 2 cm. 1. ; lateral connate, tail 2-fid at apex, similar to 

 median but broader, 4-5 mm. br., tail 1*5 cm. 1. Petals as long as the 

 sepals, subfalcate, ovate, caudate, margin minutely ciliolate, 1-1-1 cm. 1., 

 2-5-4 mm. br., tail 1*5 cm. 1. Lip, in the fresh flower, apparently simple, 

 horseshoe-shaped, embracing the column, attached by a rather broad claw 

 to the foot of the column, purple ; when spread out under the microscope, 

 it is evidently 3-lobed, with a short, slender claw, 1-5 mm. 1., middle lobe 

 transversely oblong-elliptical, at apex mucronate, 3-nerved, 1 mm. br., 

 lateral lobes oblong, incurved over the disk ; breadth of lip at lobes 3 mm. 

 Column broad, a little over 1 mm. 1. 



25. ISOCHILUS R. Br. 



Stems erect from a creeping rhizome, covered with the 

 sheaths of leaves, no pseudobulbs. Leaves in two ranks, spreading, 

 linear or lanceolate, somewhat rigidly herbaceous, generally 

 obtuse or retuse. Flowers medium-sized, rose-coloured, lake- 

 magenta or crimson, in a terminal dense one-sided raceme, with 

 very short stalks. Bracts concave, much shorter than the flower. 

 Sepals equal, erect, keeled-concave, at the base somewhat saccate. 

 Petals slightly shorter than the sepals, flat. Lip equal to the 

 petals, and with them attached to the base of the column, 

 contracted below the middle, and slightly sigmoid-flexuose, dilated 

 towards the middle. Column erect, somewhat long, semiterete, 

 not winged, at the apex at the sides of the stigma produced into 

 two erect points, with a short foot ; clinandrium little prominent, 



