TROPICAL AMERICAN ORCHIDS 
tubular; bracts of the raceme scale-like, about 5 mm. long, 
much shorter than the pedicels. Pedicel with the ovary 
1.5- 2.5 cm. long. Flowers yellowish, with brownish stains 
and markings. Lateral sepals about 1 cm. long, 4 mm. 
wide, elliptic-oblong, free at the base, obtuse, shortly and 
prominently carinate beneath near the apex. Dorsal sepal 
about 1 cm. long, weakly carinate near the tip, otherwise 
similar to the lateral sepals. Petals about 1 cm. long, 
4.5- 5 mm. wide, ovate-lanceolate, acute, slightly rellexcd 
at the tip, shortly carinate beneath, undulate on the margin. 
Labellum about 11 mm. long, broadly pandurate, with the 
basal lobes much reduced, rounded, more or less spreading, 
and with the terminal lobe 9 mm. wide and 6 mm. long, 
transversely oblong or somewhat reniform in outline, 
emarginate; isthmus between the basal and terminal lobes 
2 mm. long, 6.5 mm. wide.. Crest at the base of the disc 
conspicuous, 7-dentatc or -lobed, with the anterior pair of 
teeth obliquely spreading, complanate, obtuse, the basal 
pair lobulate, the middle pair complanate, obtuse, with a 
fleshy more or less porrect tooth interposed. Column 5 mm. 
long, stout, with a conspicuous wing on each side near the 
summit. 
Oncidium floridanum is closely related to 0. Baiieri 
Lindl. and 0. sphacetaliim Lindl., from both of which it 
differs most conspicuously in the lobing of the crest at the 
base of the lip. 
The history of this species is rather interesting. The 
original specimens were collected by A. A. l^aton on Novem¬ 
ber 13, 1903, near Brown’s Homestead, in Dade County, 
Florida. The plants were in fruit, with a few withered 
flowers still adhering to the branches of the compound 
raceme. From this very unsatisfactory material 1 confused 
the species with Oncidium sphacelatum Lindl. In May 1904, 
Eaton collected the species again, this time near Black Point 
Creek, and in March 1905, he discovered another station at 
Coot Bay, east of Whitewater Bay, in Monroe County 
(no. 1372). Several of the plants flowered in my greenhouse, 
from which specimens were sent to R. A. Rolfe for con¬ 
firmation of the belief that the species was undescribed. 
14 
