Prescottia
(named after John D. Prescott, a botanist, of St. Petersburgh). Erroneously spelt Prescotia. SYNS. Decaisnea (of Brongniart), Galeoglossum. ORD. Orchideae. A genus comprising about a score species of stove, tropical American, terrestrial orchids, with fascicled, sometimes fleshy root-fibres, and leafy, slender, or tall, simple stems. Flowers small, spicate, sub-sessile; lateral sepals connate with the lip into a sac, the lip being fleshy, cucullate, and entire, with a couple of ears at its base. Leaves clustered at the base of the stem or radical, sessile or long-stalked, small or ample, membranous. The best-known species are given below. They are similar, both in habit and leaf characters, to Stenorrhynchus, and require a greenhouse temperature; they should be potted in welldrained loam. P. colorans (coloured). fl. green, in a very long, erect, dense spike; petals subulate, ascendent; scape 2ft. long, glaucous-purplish. l. solitary, ovate-oblong, acuminate, cucullate at base, as long as the petioles. Brazil, 1834. (B. R. 1915.) P. densiflora (dense-flowered). fl. whitish; sepals and petals revolute, almost round, acute, connate with the lateral sepals. l. rosulate, oblong, obtuse, many-nerved. Brazil, 1866.
P. plantaginea (Plantain-like). fl. greenish-white, disposed in a strict, dense, cylindrical spike; lip oblong, emarginate. l. erect, lanceolate-oblong, narrowed into a petiole which is shorter than the blade. Brazil, 1822. (H. E. F. 115; L. B. C. 990.)