ORCHIDACEAE QUAEDAM AMERICANAE 
basi bracteis parvis imbricantibus vestitus. Racemus 
multiflorus, laxus, flexuosus, cum caulibus ut videtur depend- 
ens; rachis racemi glabra. Pedicelli cum ovario graciles, 
elongati. Flores inter se distantes. Sepala spathulata, 
carnosa, patentia. Petala spathulata, valde obtusa vel 
subtruncata. Labellum trilobatum; lobis lateralibus semi- 
orbicularibus, quam lobo intermedio bifido multo majoribus. 
Discus callis duobus prope apicem columnae, per medium 
trinervius, nervis prominentibus. Columna adnata. 
Stems 30 cm. or more long, leafy. Leaves distichous, 
12-14.5 cm. long, up to 4 cm. wide, oblong-elliptic, acute 
or subacute, coriaceous, jointed on closely appressed cylin¬ 
drical sheaths which are 1-4 cm. long (the uppermost ones 
shortest). Raceme terminal, often exceeding 40 cm. in 
length, clothed at base with several closely appressed sheaths, 
floriferous almost to the point of origin, slender, flexuous. 
Bracts of the inflorescence about 2 mm. long, scale-like, 
subacute, concave. Pedicel with the ovary 2-2.5 cm. long, 
smooth, grooved longitudinally when dry. Flowers twenty- 
five (more or less) in elongated lax racemes, 1-2 cm. apart 
on the smooth rachis. Lateral sepals 2 cm. long, spatulate, 
fleshy, obtuse or simply subacute, about 4 mm. wide near 
the tip. Dorsal sepal 2 cm. long, up to 7 mm. wide, elliptic- 
spatulate, fleshy. Petals 2 cm. long, 4 mm. wide near the 
tip, spatulate from a slender base, obtuse. Labellum from 
tip of the deeply split mid-lobe to the base of the column 
2.7 cm. long, 3-lobed; lateral lobes about 1.5 cm. long, 
1 cm. wide, spreading or deflexed, semiorbicular, rounded 
to a cordate base, fleshy; middle lobe bilobulate, 8 mm. 
long, lobules divaricate, oblong, obtuse, 6 mm. long, 5 mm. 
wide, on the inner side forming an acute angle. Disc bi- 
callose or shortly bicarinate in front of the column with a 
raised median nerve that extends nearly to the base of the 
middle lobe, and two shorter raised nerves one on each side 
of the middle nerve. Column about 12 mm. long, slender at 
the base, dilated upward, wholly adnate to the labellum. 
Allied to Epidendrum patens Sw., for which it has been 
mistaken. Here, for example, I refer Skinner’s Guatemalan 
material which Lindley confused with E. patens. 
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