TROPICAL AMERICAN ORCHIDS 
valde flexibilibus, albidis. Labellum late ovatum, acu¬ 
minatum, subacutum, valde concavum, longitudinaliter 
trinervium nervis lateralibus e latere nervigeris, glabrum. 
Columna generis. 
Terrestrial herb, 13-30 cm. tall to the summit of the 
raceme. Roots coarsely fibrous, fleshy, villous. Stems much 
abbreviated, concealed by scarious tubular sheaths. Leaves 
two, basilar, very dissimilar in size, petiolate, with the 
petioles 1-3 cm. long, slender; smaller leaf-blade 1.5-4 cm. 
long, 7-16 mm. wide, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 
acute; larger leaf-blade 6.5-8 cm. long, 3.5-4.5 cm. wide, 
ovate or elliptical, acuminate, acute, membranaceous, 
reticulate-nerved. Scape slender or rather stout, including 
the raceme up to 28.5 cm. long, with about six closely op¬ 
pressed acute tubular bracts below the inflorescence, shortly 
glandular-pubescent above. Raceme 3-4.5 cm. long, about 
2 cm. in diameter, cylindrical, many-flowered, with the 
rachis smooth. Rracts of the inflorescence 5-7 mm. long, 
lanceolate, acute, smooth. Ovary smooth. Lateral sepals 
about 4 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, 
conspicuously 1-nerved through the middle, with an in¬ 
distinct shorter nerve on each side, smooth. Dorsal sepal 
4 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, elliptic-lanceolate, acute. Petals 
4 mm. long, about .5 mm. wide, linear-oblong, obtuse, some¬ 
what curved at the base, mid-nerve conspicuous, margin 
provided with numerous elongated flattish whitish hairs 
which are often 1.5-2 mm. long. Labellum 2.5 mm. long, 
broadly ovate, narrowed above the middle into a subacute 
tip, concave, smooth, heaVily and conspicuously 3-nerved, 
with each lateral nerve giving off at right angles four to five 
supplementary nerves. Column about 1 mm. long. Cap¬ 
sules sessile, 9 mm. long. 
Allied to Cranichis atrata Schltr., from which it differs 
conspicuously in the foliage, in the elongated hairs on the 
margin of the linear rather than narrowly elliptical petals, 
and in having quite a different labellum. 
Colombia, Vista Nieve, Santa Marta, H. L. Viereck 
s. n., December 18, 1922. (Type in Herb. Ames No. 27181. 
Duplicate type in U. S. Nat. Herb. No. 1185519.) 
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