TROPICAL AMERICAN ORCHIDS 
Panama, Province of Chiriqui, C. W. Powell 277. 
Flowering in February 1923. Flowers orange with longi¬ 
tudinal rows of brown dots. 4500 feet altitude: Powell 245, 
October. Flowers yellow with brown dots in stripes. 4000 
feet altitude. (Type of Pleurothallis Hunleriana Schltr.): 
Powell 109, July 6, 1919. Spotted with rosy brown in longi¬ 
tudinal lines. (Specimen in Herb. Hort. Bot. Reg. Kew.) 
Pleurothallis Brighamii S. Wats, in Proc. Am. Acad. 
23 (1888) 285; Ames Sched. Orch. 2 (1923) 18. 
This species has remained obscure since it was pub¬ 
lished by Watson in 1888. Recent explorations indicate that 
it is widely distributed in Central America and fairly com¬ 
mon. In Honduras I have found it in large, dense masses 
on the limbs of trees. Although common, it is not often 
found in flower. A single plant will sometimes bear one or 
two flowers while all others will be sterile. From our present 
knowledge of its distribution, it ranges from Guatemala to 
Panama. 
The specimens from Panama differ slightly in the size 
of the labellum from Guatemalan and Honduran specimens, 
but structurally they are so similar to them that even at¬ 
tempts at varietal distinction seem superfluous. From field 
notes, the flowers of specimens from Panama appear to be 
different from the type in the markings of the sepals, but 
variation in color is hardly reliable as a guide for differentia¬ 
tion. [Plate 7.] 
Spanish Honduras, near Tela (Jilamo Arriba), Ames 
II. 245, March 21, 1923. 200 feet altitude: Guaimas, Ames 
II. 147, March 9, 1923. Growing on a woody vine. Sepals 
yellow with purple-brown stripes. 400 feet altitude: near 
Tela (Lancetilla Farm), along the Tela River on trees over¬ 
hanging the water, Ames II. 205, March 16, 1923. 300 feet 
altitude. 
Panama, Frijoles, banks of Gatun Lake, C. W. Powell 
275: foothills east of Panama, Powell 274. 
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