JUNE, 1923.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 183 
these Lindley referred other species to Warrea which diverge from the type 
species of that genus far more than they do from that of Zygopetalum. 
Thus a series of genera were founded, all bearing an evident relation to each 
other, but which on first examination seemed to be sufficiently distinct from 
each other to require a separate generic nomenclature. As new species 
came to light from that apparently inexhaustible treasury of Orchid life, 
the tropical region of Central and South America, the original lines of 
demarcation were much obliterated, and Zygopetalum, Huntleya, Bollea, 
Warscewiczella, Pescatorea, Warrea (in part) and Batemania (in part) 
became a confused group of genera, the limits of each of which could not 
be clearly determined. So long ago as 1863, this unsatisfactory classification 
became so evident that Reichenbach, when compiling his synopsis of the 
ORCHIDE for Walper’s Annales Botanices, merged nearly all of them into 
Zygopetalum, including also his own genus Kefersteinia and Lindley’s 
Promenea. The propriety of this course was strengthened by subsequent 
discoveries, so that when Bentham undertook the revision of the ORCHIDE2 
for the Genera Plantarum he unhesitatingly adopted it, adding Batemania 
except the type species, and restoring Zygopetalum_rostratum (Hgok.) and 
another species which Reichenbach had separated under the name of 
Zygosepalum. The genus Zygopetalum thus enlarged may still seem to 
many horticulturists to be made up of heterogeneous elements that ought to. 
be kept distinct, at least for garden use, but after full consideration we are 
satisfied that the course adopted by Bentham is that which should be 
accepted, especially as every fresh discovery tends to confirm it. 
The genus is confessedly a polymorphous one, but the following 
characters fairly circumscribe it. The sepals are sub-equal and spreading, 
either free or joined at the very base; the lateral two are adnate to the 
short foot of the column. The petals are similar and nearly equal to the 
sepals. The lip is affixed to the foot of the column, forming with it a short, 
obtuse mentum or chin; the lateral lobes are usually small and erect, 
sometimes embracing the column, the blade large spreading. The 
transverse crest is very prominent and fleshy, either entire or lobed, rarely 
fimbriated. The column is incurved, semi-terete, wingless, or shortly winged 
at the apex. The anther is two-celled, the pollinia four, sessile on the gland 
or viscid disk that rests on the rostellum. 
From the above diagnosis it is evident that the prominent fleshy crest, 
which is often furrowed, rarely fringed, and nearly always more deeply 
or differently coloured than the other parts of the flower, is the chief 
distinguishing character of the genus. 
In their vegetation the Zygopetala, even in the enlarged sense in which 
the genus is here understood, are remarkably uniform, the most obvious 
variations being the presence or absence of pseudo-bulbs ; the one, two or 
