CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE GRAY HERBARIUM OF HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY, NEW SERIES, No. XVIIL 
Presented by B. L. Robinson, January 10,1900. Received January 26, 1900. 
I.—NEW SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF MEXICAN 
PLANTS. 
By J. M. GREENMAN. 
Spiranthes Nelsonii. Aphyllous: roots clustered, tuberous, densely 
covered with long hairs: stems 4 to 5.5 dm. high, clothed below with 
oblong-ovate short-acuminate white scarious overlapping glabrous nervate 
bracts, these somewhat more remote toward the inflorescence, glabrous 
below, above and throughout the inflorescence more or less glandular- 
pubescent: spikes oblong, 6 to 10 em. long, about 2.5 em. broad, rather 
closely flowered; bracts ovate, acuminate, shorter than the flowers: 
flowers sessile, about 2 em. long, apparently white; the perianth later be- 
coming reflexed or more or less folded on itself; the outer lateral 
divisions of the perianth or lateral sepals oblong, slightly expanded above 
the middle, 1.1 to 1.2 em. long, 3.5 mm. broad, obtuse, the upper sepal 
similar but slightly larger ; the inner lateral divisions of the perianth or 
lateral petals oblong-spatulate, about 1 cm. in length, obtuse, much nar- 
rowed toward the base; lip oblong-ligulate, 1.3 to 1.4 em. long, 4 mm. 
broad, subtruncate or obtusish at the apex, cuneate at the base, callous- 
tuberculate on each side just above the base, bearing in the lower half on 
either side near the margins a thick or fleshy pubescent ridge; clinan- 
drium pubescent along the free surface; anther broadly ovate, 3 mm. 
long, obtuse: beak of the stigma short-oblong, minutely 2-toothed at the 
apex ; gland linear-oblong. — Collected by E. W. Nelson, between Rio 
Verde and Panixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, altitude 125 to 870 m., 25 February, 
1894, no. 2384. 
Sprranraes Prineier, Watson, var. minor. Flowers green or 
greenish white, one-half to two-thirds as large as in the species proper ; 
in technical characters and in general habit corresponding well with the 
type specimen of the species. — Collected by C. G. Pringle in grassy 
fields near Jalapa, altitude 1,225 m., 17, 21 May, 1899, no. 8197. 
