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Notylia (From notos the back and tylos)

(from notos, the back, and tylos, a hump; referring to a singular lump on the column). ORD. Orchideae. A small genus of low, stove, tropical American Orchids. About eighteen species have been described; but probably several of these are merely varieties. Flowers mostly inconspicuous, racemose; sepals narrow, erect, or almost spreading; lip unguiculate and quite entire. Few of the species are seen under cultivation. They do best in small baskets full of peat fibre, potsherds, and sphagnum, or attached to a piece of teak with a little fresh sphagnum wired over base of plant.

N. albida (whitish). fl. greenish-yellow, small, disposed in dense pendulous racemes 6in. long. April. l. cuneate-ligulate, oblong, obtuse, acute. Pseudo-bulbs caespitose, small, compressed, one-leaved. h. 6in. Central America, 1851. (B. M. 6311.) N. bicolor (two-coloured). fl., sepals white; petals lilac, with blue spots at base, wider than the sepals; lip same colour as petals, free; spikes drooping, 2in. to 3in. long. l. about five, equitant, stiff, scimitar-shaped, half the length of the flower-spikes. Guatemala, 1866. (B. M. 5609.) N. bipartita (bipartite). fl. numerous, similar to those of a Dendrochilum. Mexico, 1880.

N. punctata (dotted). fl. yellow, green; sepals and petals obtuse; lip obcuneate, unguiculate, acute, callous at base. h. 6in. Trinidad, 1822. (B. R. 759, under name of Pleurothallis punctata.)