TROPICAL AMERICAN ORCHIDS 
of the sagittate base extending into the mentnm and con¬ 
cealed within it, thickened, dorso-ventrally flattened, 2 mm. 
long. Disc of the lahellum glandular, with a forcipate 
glandulose thickening at the opening to the throat of the sac. 
Column about 1.1 cm. long, slender; rostellum linear. 
Closely allied to Pelexia hondurensis Ames, from which 
it differs in having larger flowers, much less pronounced 
glandulosity in the throat of the lahellum, and longer 
auricles at the flat not geniculate base of the lahellum. 
Spanish Honduras, Dakota (Jilamo Arriba), Ames 
II. 259, March 21, 1923. Terrestrial in dense herbaceous 
undergrowth in forest. (Type in Herb. Ames No. 27280.) 
Pleurothallis aperta (Kr'dnzl.) Ames comb. nov. 
Masdevallia aperta KranzL in Fedde Repert. 17 (1921) 
430. 
Pleurothallis hamata Rolfe in Orch. Rev. 24 (1916) 187, 
nomen; Ames Sched. Orch. 3 (1923) 8. 
Pleurothallis Ilunteriana Schlir. in Fedde Repert. 
Beihefte 17 (1922) 20. 
This species was collected for the first time by Endres 
in Costa Rica, where it was found along the Rio Paqnita 
above the San Alarcos bridge. Until 1921 Endres’ material 
lay in the Reichenbachian Herbarium at Vienna as an un¬ 
identified species. In 1924, Kranzlin described it under the 
name Masdevallia aperta. Unfortunately, in his description. 
Dr. Kranzlin misinterpreted the floral structure. He mis¬ 
took the outer half of each deeply keeled lateral sepal for a 
keel and described the inner surface as carinate, (“ Die 3 
Sepalcn haben die Kiele nicht aussen, sondern innen,”). In 
December 1922, Schlechter, working on material submitted 
to him by C. W. Powell, described a new species of Pleuro¬ 
thallis as P. Ilunteriana. 14ic Powell specimens are in¬ 
separable from Masdevallia aperta. In January 1923, before 
Schlechter’s description of his new species reached me, I 
supplied a description for the Pleurothallis hamata of Rolfe, 
a species which was found by C. H. Lankester in Costa Rica, 
and successfully cultivated in the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
17 
