﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[May, 1904. 



orange, the side lobes pale cinnabar to carmine, and the disc and basal 

 parts of the lip and column as generally dark cinnabar or carmine, but in 

 some flowers the whole flower is light cinnabar coloured. As in other 

 species of the group, the pseudo-bulbs and leaves are covered with black 

 pubescence. It is a remarkable little plant, and it will be interesting to 

 watch its behaviour under cultivation. 



R. A.R. 



PTEROGLOSSASPIS ECRISTATA. 



It was a matter of considerable geographical interest when a new species 

 of the African genus Pteroglossaspis was discovered in Argentina, namely 

 P. argentina, Rolfe (ex Stuckert in Anal. Mm. Nac. Buenos Aires, ix., p. 11), 

 but it now appears that we have another American species in the above- 

 named plant, whose systematic position has been hitherto somewhat 

 doubtful. It was first discovered by A. H. Curtiss on dry pine barrens, 

 near Jacksonville, Florida, and confused by Chapman with Bletia 

 verecunda, though the author afterwards discovered his mistake, and 

 referred the plant with some doubt to Cyrtopodium Woodfordii, which 

 was also incorrect. Fernald, relying on a note by Bentham (to whom 

 it was referred by the late Sereno Watson) described it as a new 

 species of Cyrtopodium, under the name of C. ecristatum, which Small 

 afterwards erected into a new genus, under the name of Triorchos ecristata. 

 And now Mr. Oakes Ames has transferred it to Eulophia, as E. ecristata. 

 When Bentham did the Orchids for the Genera Plantavum Pteroglossaspis 

 was only known by a single Abyssinian species, P. eustachya, Rchb. f., but 

 afterwards were successively described ; P. Engleriana, Kranzl., from Mt. 

 Kilimanjaro, P. ruwenzoriensis, Rolfe, from Mt. Ruwenzori, P. Carsoni, 

 Rolfe, from the neighbourhood of Lake Tanganyika, and P. argentina, 

 Rolfe, from Argentina. The present addition agrees with the others both 

 in structure and habit, but has broader leaves and longer laxer racemes. 

 The genus is near Cyrtopodium, but is markedly different in its strict spikes 

 and long acuminate bracts, in which a spiral arrangement is clearly shown. 

 The following is the synonymy of the species :— Bletia verecunda, Chapm. 

 Fl. S. U. St., p. 456, in part (not R. Br.) ; Cyrtopodium Woodfordii, 

 Chapm., I. c. suppl., p. 654 (not Sims) ; C. ecristatum, Fernald in Coult. 

 But. Gazette, xxiv. p. 433 ; Triorchos ecristatus, Small, FL S. E. U. St., p. 

 329 ; Eulophia ecristata, Ames, Contrib. from Ames Bot. Lab., i., p. 19. It 

 seems to be confined to dry pine barrens in Eastern and peninsular 

 Florida, where it is locally common. The flowers are described as yellowish 

 outside and purplish brown within. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



