ADDISONIA 43 
(Plate 62) 
EPIDENDRUM OBLONGATUM 
Short-leaved Cuban Epidendrum 
Native of Cuba 
Family ORCHIDACEAE OrcHID Family 
Epidendrum phoeniceum vanillosmum Lemaire, F1. Serres pl. 306. 1848. 
Epidendrum oblongatum A. Rich. in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 11; 239. 1850. 
Epidendrum naa Jennings, Ann. Carnegie Mus. 11: 102. 1917. 
An epiphytic orchid, growing usually in small clumps. The 
pseudobulbs are Swi an inch to an oH and a half long, and bear 
one or two leaves at the apex. The thick leaves are oblong, up to 
six inches long and an inch wide, with the folded base clasping the 
base of the stem, and with the apex abruptly narrowed, usu 
into an obtuse shortly two-toothed summit. The flo owering stem 
is usually under eighteen inches tall, though sometimes taller, 
with ovate straw-colored scattered scales below, and termin ated 
by a raceme of three to a dozen flowers, which are from an inch 
and a quarter to an inch and a half in diameter. The brown 
sepals are narrowly elliptic, acute, about three fourths of an inch 
long, and the acute petals, in color similar to the sepals, are oblong- 
spatulate. The lip, which equals or somewhat exceeds the sepals 
and pe tals, is three quarters of an inch to an inch and an eighth 
long and is white, changing to yellow, veined with purple. The 
middle lobe is transversely oval, three quarters of an inch to an 
inch broad, two-lobed. ‘The 1 ateral fabes are vertical projecting 
orward, and are obtuse at the apex. The crest is fils bed. 
The column is about half an inch long. The capsule is one to one 
and a half inches long. 
The plant from which the drawing was prepared was collected 
by Britton and Cowell along the Coloma Road, Pinar del Rio, 
Cuba, in the spring of 1911. It appears to be quite commonly 
distributed in Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Pines, and also occurs 
in the province of Havana. 
This species is related to Epidendrum phoeniceum Lindl., but 
can be readily distinguished by the short leaves, and the lip which 
in that species is rose with a darker center. It may be grown in a 
house of ordinary tropical conditions. 
Grorce V. NASH. 
EXPLANATION OF PLate. Fig. 1.—Plant, pseudobulbs and leaves. Fig. 2.— 
ce. Fig. 3.—Lip, side view, X 1.5. Fig. 4.—Lip, spread out, X 1.5. 
Fig. 5.—Column, side view, X 1.5. Fig. 6.—Column, front view, X 1.5. 
