TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
IUBE LINNEAN SOCIETY 
I. An Acfount of the Jamaican Species ef Pepenties 
By WirLiAM FAwortT, B.Sc., F.L.S., and A. B. Rr LE, MA, D.Sc., F. L.S. 
(Plates 1 & 2.) 
Read 16th June, 1904. 
LLEPANTHES is a genus of the Plewrothallis group of monandrous Orchids, 
containing about fifty known species generally with a very restricted range on the 
mountains of Tropical America and the West Indies. So far as our present knowledge 
goes, the Andes of Peru and Ecuador represent the area richest in species ; others are 
found on the Andes of Colombia, the mountains of Venezuela and Guiana; several 
species occur on the mountains of Central America and Equatorial Mexico; and some of 
the Jamaican species occur also in Cuba. Thus the genus is evidently a widespread 
Equatorial American alpine; the mountains of Jamaica and Cuba probably represent 
the limit of its northward range. Further research will doubtless result in a considerable 
increase in the number of species; thus Grisebach in the * Flora of the British West 
Indies’ enumerates six, while our account of the Jamaican forms includes twelve species. 
Most of the specimens come from the Blue Mountain range, which is situated at the 
eastern end of Jamaica, running in an east-and-west direction. The rainfall towards its 
eastern limit is as much as 200 inches annually. The elevation reaches 7423 feet 
at the Peak (rainfall 175 inches), falling suddenly to the west to 5550 at Portland Gap, 
rising again westwards to Main Ridge Peak and John Grant Peak, falling to 5600 at 
Newhaven Gap, where the rainfall is about 150 inches, and still lower to Morse's Gap 
(4943 feet), whence it rises to 6000 feet in John Crow Peak. A road leads from 
Bellevue, Cinchona, which is on a spur of the range running southwards (rainfall 
103 inches, elevation 5000 feet), over Morse's Gap, and then gradually downwards to the 
sea-coast, passing Vinegar Hill (3950 feet) and Claverty Cottage (2250 feet). From 
Morse's Gap there is a sudden and deep fall to the head-waters of the Mabess River, 
. and collectors reach its banks (2000 to 3500 feet) either by descending by a track from 
SECOND SERIES.—BOTANY, VOL. VII. B 
