THE JAMAICAN SPECIES OF LEPANTHES. 3 
flushed with crimson, or, as in Lepanthes sanguinea and L. obtusa, crimson throughout. 
In L. divaricata the colour of the sepals has been noticed to vary with the age of the 
flower. When the flower opens it is a transparent light yellow slightly shaded with 
crimson down the centre, but as the flower grows older the crimson extends almost to 
the edges, showing very little of the yellow. This may occur in other species in which 
the sepals are described as both yellow and crimson. The same colour-scheme holds 
with the petals and lip, but the tendency to crimson is more marked in the petals and 
still more marked in the lip. 
The colour of the column was not always noted, but seems to be generally crimson. 
Crimson, offen associated with yellow, also characterizes allied genera of Orchids 
inhabiting the mountains of Equatorial America. It is frequent in Pleurothallis and 
practically universal in Masdevallia. 
The petals, which are much smaller than the sepals, show a greater variety in form. 
In L. concolor they are broadly deltoid, but generally are elongated in the vertical plane 
of the flower, forming narrow anterior and posterior lobes, while the length of the petal, 
from its base or point of insertion to the almost obsolete apex, is much reduced. The 
lobes vary in length, breadth, and form, but the two are generally similar. The most 
striking differences occur in the minute lip, which is inserted at or above the base of 
the short column. In several species it is a comparatively simple structure. Thus in 
L. bilabiata (Pl. 1. fig. 3) it is deeply concave and shelters the column by its elevated sides ; 
in L. quadrata (fig..13) the relatively large slightly concave subquadrate anterior portion 
is prolonged posteriorly into two blunt lobes which embrace the column. In L. concolor 
(fig. 6) and L. tridentata (fig. 11) the anterior portion is less developed, while the lateral 
lobes are large and embrace the column or stand parallel with its sides. In the remaining 
Jamaican species the anterior lobe is almost or quite suppressed, and the two lateral 
lobes are differentiated into a narrower lower portion, which is appressed to the sides of 
the column and expands above the middle into a fleshy surface developed in the antero- 
posterior plane of the flower and generally more or less lanceolate in outline; the fleshy 
surfaces embrace the sides and back of the column, the pointed end projecting anteriorly 
and the broader lobes meeting behind. These varying shapes of petals and lip are 
doubtless intimately connected with the pollination of the flower, but on this point we 
have no information. Observations in the field on such minute flowers will require 
much care and involve considerable expenditure of time. The pollinia, in the Jamaican 
species, are remarkably uniform in shape—pyriform, with rather long caudicles. 
The capsule is generally shortly obovoid in shape, and longitudinally ridged or winged ; 
the seeds, so far as we have observed, are colourless and linear-oblong to spindle-shaped. 
Their dissemination is aided by the hygroscopic movements of the numerous colourless 
elater-like hairs which line the walls of the interior of the capsule. 
The name Lepanthes is derived from the Greek Aézoc (bark) and àv6oc (flower), “ because 
plants of this genus grow on bark of trees” (Swartz, in Nov. Act. Reg. Soc. Sci. Upsal. vi. 85). 
NoTE.—A large number of the specimens have been collected by Mr. W. Harris. 
A fine series has been placed in the Herbarium, British Museum. The figures are from 
an excellent series of drawings from living plants by Miss Helen Adelaide Wood. 
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