MASDEVALLIA ABBREVIATA Rchb. f. 
MASpEVALLIA ABBREVIATA Rebb. f. Gard. Chron. 1878, pt. II., p. 106 ; 1881, pt. IL., p. 236 ; Bot. Mag. 
t. G258 (1876) as M. polysticta Rehb. f. (AM. melanopus Rehb. f. fide Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 6368 
(1878) under Af. polysticta) ; Orchidophile (Godefroy ) vol. I. (1881-3), p. 83. 
Leaf 5 or 6 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, apex tridenticulate, bright green, narrowing below into a 
slender grooved petiole, sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle 6 or 7 inches long, terete, slender, ascending from within a sheath at the base of the petiole, 
green, many-flowered ; flowering bracts about 4 inch Jong, sheathing the pedicel and the base of the ovary, 
brownish. 
Ovary 4 inch long, triangular, with six crenate wings, pale green. 
Sepals all cohering for about } inch, forming a rounded tube, gibbous below, free portions ovate- 
triangular for about 34; inch, 3-nerved, margins serrate, white, more or less spotted with pinkish-crimson, 
and terminating in slender terete tails, bright yellow tipped with orange. 
Petals a little more than 3 inch long, linear at the base, obcordate, apiculate, margins sharply serrated, 
with a fleshy angled keel on the anterior margin, pure white. * 
Lip longer than the petals, grooved at the base and united to the curved foot of the column by a 
flexible hinge, lateral lobes oblong, narrowing towards the central lobe, with two longitudinal keels, apex 
trilobed, pale yellow. 
Column a little shorter than the petals, green, with crimson apex and wings and a few spots, foot 
white with crimson spots, apex sharply denticulate. 
LTHOUGH Professor Reichenbach’s first description of Mf. abbreviata was not 
published until 1878, the plant was probably known and cultivated in Europe for 
some years previously, in perhaps more than one variety, and under the name of 
M. melanopus. No record of its habitat was given by Bruchmiiller or Roezl, but there 
seems no doubt that one of these collectors discovered it in North Peru. Reichenbach 
suggests that it is perhaps a hybrid between Jf. polysticta and M. melanopua, and states 
also that there is “a nearly unspotted variety.” It appears, however, to be a true 
species, and probably its extreme variability helps to account for the confusion that 
exists between it and Af. melanopus, although it never approaches the very rare and 
distinct form of that species figured in the present work. 
a 
The Plate published in the Botanical Magazine in 1876 (t. 6258) as Af. polysticta 
was afterwards supposed (Bot. Mag. t. 6368, 1878) by Sir Joseph Hooker to be 
M. melanopus, but in the Royal Herbarium at Kew there is a letter from Professor 
Reichenbach, attached to dried specimens of Af. abbreviata, in which he says: ‘“ The 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newbattle Abbey : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position ;—la, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;— 
3, lip, front view ;—3a, lip, side view ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and 
section of leaf, natural size. 
