IANKESTERIANA 5(1): 63-67. 2005. Julian Shaw, Royal Horticulture Society Senior Registrar for Orchid Hybrids, has announced (Shaw 2004) that: "Guarianthe Predated by Epicladiumn. Epicladiumn (Lindl.) Small is the name with date priority for the generic concept recently described as Guarianthe Dressler & WE. Higgins. Therefore hybrid genera involving Guarianthe will not be used in registration. Appropriate nothogenera will be provided in due course". There are several issues raised by this announcement. Guarianthe (Dressler & Higgins 2003, Higgins 2004) as a genus has found little favor with orchid growers. If these species are a distinct genus from Cattleya Lindl., under any name, the effects will be substantial. The plants long known as Cattleya bowringiana Veitch and Cattleya aurantiaca (Batem.) Don have been involved in thousands of garden hybrids, many of great popularity. This taxonomic issue about the genera is independent of the name used. Lindley, in Hooker's Journal of Botany 3: 81. 1841, wrote, "Having lately had occasion to reconsider the large genus Epidendrumn, I have been led to attempt its subdivision upon more natural characters than those used in the Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, the result of which is given in the following account of the subgenera Ipropose to adopt." Lindley's subdivisions, on page 97 of The Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants (1831), have no names, merely numbers, letters, and brief diagnosis. They are groups of species that are rather arbitrary, and there are no types singled out, so they need not influence later nomenclature. Of the species Lindley gives under Epidendvrum, only E. bidentatumn Lindl. is part of the present issue. It is a later homonym of Epidendvrum bidentatumn J.Konig, from Asia. The name Epidendvrum boothianumn Lindl., and its subsequent generic assignments, refer to Lindley's E. bidentatumn and this account will deal with this species below. Returning to Lindley in 1841, he numbers and names 10 sub genera. No type species are named and there is no list of the contents of each subgenus. Number II is named Epicladiumn. It is described as "Caulis pseudobulbosus in-r.-m:-- a Flores racemosi,e spatha erumpentes. Labellumnliberumn." Acomparison with the other subgenera suggests that only the spathe distinguishes Epicladiumn. But the "tfusiformis" may suggest that Epidendvrum aurantiacumn Lindl. (1838b), was what he had in mind. Suggest, but nothing more. In 1838a, he had also published Epidendvrum boothianumn. In 1853, Lindley published an enlarged account of Epidendvrum, in Folia Orchidacea (p. 1-97). Now there are twelve "Sub-genera," the first of which is Epicladiumn. Lindley on the preceding page refers to these as "divisions". Assume hejustmeant "part of", not a taxonomic level. Epicladiumn includes three species. EPICLADIUM SMALL OR GUARIANTHE DRESSLER & W.E. HIGGINS (ORCHIDACEAE)? JOHN BECKNER Curator Orchid Identification Center, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, 811 South Palm Ave., Sarasota, Florida 32667, USA. jbeckner~selby.org ABSTRACT. Guarianthe Dressler & W.E.Higgins as a genus has found little favor with orchid growers. If these species are a distinct genus from Cattleya Lindl., under any name, the effects will be substantial. All taxa of this alliance are of considerable horticultural importance, as species and in the ancestry of thousands of garden hybrids. In any case, Guarianthe cannot be replaced by Epicladium Small, which was based on Epidendrum boothianum. RESUMEN. El nombre gendrico Guarianthe Dressler & W.E.Higgins ha sido poco aceptado por los horticultores. Si se trata de un g6nero diferente a Cattleya Lindl., este hecho es significativo. Todas las species de Guarianthe tienen gran importancia horticola y han dado origen a miles de hibridos artificiales. En todo caso, Guarianthe no puede ser reemplazado por Epicladium Small, el cual se basa en Epidendrum boothianum. Ambos nombres gendricos no son equivalentes. KEY WORDS / PALABRAS CLAVE: Cattleya, Epicladium, Guarianthe, botanical nomenclature.