ORCHIDACEAE QUAEDAM AMERICANAE 
sheath, about 7 cm. long, floriferous nearly to the base. Ra¬ 
cemes slender, bearing as many as twenty-five brown- 
purple flowers. Floral bracts 2-3 mm. long, obliquely in- 
fundibuliform, acute, enclosing the rachis, equalling the per¬ 
sistent pedicel. Pedicel and ovary 3 mm. long. Flowers 
about 2 mm. apart, distichous, reddish brown when dry. 
Sepals coherent at base, about 2.25 mm. long, broadly ovate 
from a wide base, obtuse, 3-nerved. Petals 1 mm. long, 
1.5 mm. wide near the end, flabellate-semiorbicular, apical 
margin much thickened, 3-nerved, nerves clavate in outline. 
Labellum fleshy, about 1 mm. long, transversely elliptical 
from a wide cuneate base, obtusely apiculate, callose- 
thickened to about the middle, with a foveola in front of the 
callus. Column fleshy, dilated above into rounded lobes, 
one on each side. 
Allied to Stelis crassilabia Schltr. 
Colombia, State of Cauca, Headwaters of Rio Lopez, 
Rio Palo basin, Tierra Adentro, H. Pittier 1093, January 
1906. 2500-3000 meters altitude. (Type in Herb. Ames 
No. 7968.) 
Stelis insignis Ames sp. nov. Herba caespitosa, 
caulibus secundariis validis. Folium carnosum, oblongo- 
ellipticum in petiolum brevem contractum. Racemi 
subdensiflori. Sepala similia, rotundato-ovalia. Petala con- 
spicue cucullata, vix incrassata. Labellum basi cuneata, 
superne transverse ellipticum, apiculatum. Discus callo 
bilobo ornatus. Columna carnosa. 
Roots fibrous, whitish, smooth, about 4 cm. long. Sec¬ 
ondary stems caespitose, 17-18 cm. long, rigid, 3-4 mm. in 
diameter, sulcate in dried specimens, provided with a 
tubular sheath above the middle, which is 3-4 cm. long, 
closely oppressed, scarious, brown-annulate at the point of 
origin. Leaf 11.5-13 cm. long, about 3.5 cm. wide, oblong- 
elliptic, obtuse, coriaceous, nervose when dry, midnerve 
prominent, at base contracted into a rigid sulcate petiole, 
shorter than the inflorescence. Petiole about 2 cm. long. 
Peduncles 3, arising through a closely oppressed complanate 
sheath. Sheath 1.5 cm. long, prominently nerved. Peduncle 
5 
