NEW OR NOTEWORTHY ORCHIDS 
5.2-5.8 mm. long, 2.1-2.5 mm. wide above the middle, 
rounded at the apex, concave, indistinctly 3-nerved, spar¬ 
ingly ciliolate. Petals oblong-lanceolate, oblique, about 3.1 
mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, obtuse, irregularly serrate, con¬ 
spicuously 1-nerved. Labellum shortly unguiculate, the 
sides of the basal half incurved in natural position; claw 
short and very stout, 1 mm. long and somewhat wider at 
the base of the abrupt lamina; lamina when expanded ovate, 
about 3 mm. long, about 2.2 mm. wide near the base, with 
an indistinct very small semiorbicular lobule on each side 
of the base, margins finely and irregularly erose, upper sur¬ 
face densely papillose throughout, a pair of indistinct thick¬ 
ened keels near the middle of each side. Column about 3 mm. 
long, slender, more or less arcuate, abruptly and broadly 
bialate at the apex, the wing denticulate at the summit. 
Anther cap-shaped, with a tuft of hairs at the apex. Pollinia 
broadly pyriform, complanate. 
Pleurothallis cingens is remarkable in having the stem 
extended into the leaf-blade, as in P. circumplexa Lindl. 
and P. Pantasmii Reichb. f. However, these species differ 
strikingly in the petals and lip. P. gacayana Schltr. has the 
inflorescences at the base of the leaf as is normally the case, 
but it appears to be florally similar to P. cingens. 
The description was prepared from several dried spec¬ 
imens. 
The specific name is in reference to the base of the leaf 
which surrounds the stem. 
Costa Rica, La Fuente, A. Alfaro 186, September 4 
and December 1925. 1200 meters altitude. “Flowers si¬ 
enna ochraceous.” (Type in Herb. Ames No. 33632; 
Duplicate Type in U. S. Nat. Flerb. No. 1208266.) 
Pleurothallis compacta (Ames) A. & S. comb. nov. 
Stelis compacta Ames Orch. 3 (1908) 76, t. 53. Platystele 
bulbinella Schltr. in Fedde Repert. 8 (1910) 565. Platystele 
compacta Ames in Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 35 (1922) 85. 
The genus Platystele, proposed by Schlechter in Fedde 
Repert. 8 (1910) 565, is apparently based on a single floral 
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