Tas. 7125. 
MASDEVALLIA Carpert. 
Native of New Grenada. 
Nat. Ord. Oncuipex.—Tribe Epmenprex. : 
Genus Maspevattia, Ruiz & Pav.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 492.) 
Maspevatita (Saccolabiate) Carderi ; foliis lineari-oblanceolatis apice biden- 
tatis, scapis pendulis unifloris, spathig 1-2 appressis parvis, bractea brevi 
spathacea ovario breviore, floribus carnosulis symmetricis, perianthii 
late campanulati lobis iatissimis in fila elongata repente anyustatis, 
petalis lineari-oblungis obtusis disco intus prope apicem carunculato, 
labelli subsessilis hypochilo basi gibbo lateribus rotundatis, epichilo 
latiore quam longo saccato integerrimo, disco hypochili 2-carinatoad apicem 
carunculato, columna apice denticulata. 
M. Carderi, Reichb. f. in Gard. Chron. 1883, vol.1. p. 784, and vol. ii. p. 181, 
fig. 30. - 
Of all the genera of Orchidew none is so remarkable as 
Masdevallia for diversity in inflorescence, sepals, petals, 
and lip. Twenty species have been figured in this Maga- 
zine, and not one of these resembles M. Carderiin the symme- 
trical pendulous campanulate flowers, which show scarcely 
any tendency to obliquity in the position of the ovary 
relatively to the scape. Nor are the colours common to 
the genus, the predominance of white in this being very 
exceptional. Dr. Reichenbach refers it to the group 
Saccolabiate, in which the terminal lobe of the lip is eon- 
spicuously saccate, and to the near neighbourhood of his 
M. Houtteana (Must. Hortic. t. 2106), in which the sheaths 
on the scape are lanceolate and loose, the perianth much 
shallower and more deeply divided, and the midlobe of the 
lip keeled within in the middle. Mr. Rolfe has pointed out 
to me a nearer ally in M. Troglodytes, EH. Morren, in which 
the midlobe is, as in M. Carderi, quite even within, and the 
perianth of which more resembles that of the latter, though 
more deeply divided and very differently coloured. It 
further differs in the flowers being pedicelled, the narrow 
hypochile, and the acuminate column. _ 
The specimen drawn of M. Carderi flowered in the 
Royal Gardens in July, 1888 ; it was obtained in 1887 from 
Messrs. Hugh Low and Co., of Clapham. 
Juty Ist, 1890. 
