MASDEVALLIA ELEPHANTICEPS Rchb. f. 
Maspevaniia eLErHANTICEPS Rehb. £2 Bonplandia II. (1854), p. 116 ; UT, (1855), p. 69; Xen. Orch. I. 
(1858), p. 6, t. 3; Plor. des Serres ser. I., vol. X. (1854-5), p. 77, t. 997 ; Walp. Ann. VI. (1861), 
p. 192; Gard. Chron, 1881, pt. IL. p. 236 ; Veitch Manual Orch, pt. V. (1889), p. 40. 
M. Gargantua Kebb. tf. Gard. Chron, 1876, pt. IL, p. 516; 1881, pt. IL, p. 305; 1886, pt. I., p. 13; 
Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 43. 
Leaf 9 or 10 inches long, oblong, tridenticulate, narrowing below into a thick grooved petiole, 
sheathed at the base, bright creen, with « few crimson spots, the younger ones very bright, the older ones 
tinged with rich purple. 1 
Pedunele 1) inch Jong, pedicel about the same length, terete, with two sheathing bracts, ascending 
from within the sheath at the base of the petiole, green, with crimson spots ; flowering bract about 1 inch 
long, ovate, apiculate, sheathing below, brownish-green, with a minute rudimentary bud within at the base. 
Ovary nearly } inch long, with six rounded angles, bright green, with crimson spots. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for about 3 inch, forming a wide tube, gibbous below, 
free portion ovate-triangular for about 4 inch, 3-nerved, tapering into a flattened fleshy tail about 19 inch 
long, brilliant Iemon-yellow, the tail brighter yellow, green at the back ; lateral sepals cohering for 23 
inches, free portions oblong-ovate, angled at their junction, margins reflexed, 3-nerved, the nerves 
prominent on the outer surface, depressed within, deep reddish-crimson, rather shining, the surface covered 
with blunt excrescences, yellow at the margins, tube pale greenish-yellow, deeply stained with crimson 
within at the base, very thick and substantial. 
Petals about 2 inch Jong, thick and fleshy, oblong-ovate, anterior margin with a thick angled excres- 
cence, beneath which the surface is covered with colourless viscid matter, white, shining, with a rich 
crimson central streak and a few spots. 
Lip about ¥ inch long, oblong, fleshy and grooved at the base, and united to the foot of the column 
by a flexible hinge, with a shallow neetary on each side, margins reflexed, greenish, broadly bordered with 
crimson, rough with papille, the apex dark crimson, with a rounded central line, and covered with coarse 
branching purple-crimson hairs. 
Column about } inch long, very thick, broadly winged, green edged with crimson, apex minutely 
denticulate, margin studded with minute viscid drops. 
GR E first specinens of this maguificent plant were dried ones sent with a drawing to 
Professor Reichenbach by its discoverer, Warscewicz, who found it in 1850, in the 
mountains of Santander, between Ocana and Pamplona, growing in woods on damp 
turfy ground, ina temperature of 6 to 10° Réaumur (about 46° to 55° Fahrenheit). It 
Was also found shortly afterwards by Wagener and Schlim, in woods near Ocafa, at an 
elevation of 7—s,000 feet, and more recently by Brickmiiller, Shuttleworth, and other 
collectors. Warscewicz’s drawing, published by Reichenbach in his “ Xenia Orchi- 
dacea,” represents a very large flower, larger, probably, than any yet produced in 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newbattle Abbey : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip. and column ;—1a, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;—2a, side of petal ;— 
3. lip ;—8a, base of lip. showing nectaries ;—4, cohamn ;—4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex 
and section of leaf, nafural size. 
