MASDEVALLIA ORTGIESIANA, hort. 
Maspevarnia Onrcrestana, hort. Orehid Review vol. III. (1895) p. 48. 
Planta dense espitosa ; folio lineari-lanceolato, rigido, apice tridenticulato, viridi, in petiolum 
robustum sulcatum sensim angustato, basi vaginata, pedunculo uniflore, tereti, erecto, bracteato, tenuissimo, 
multo curtiore quan folio, ex basi petioli emergenti, viridi, minute rubro-punctato ; pedicello curtio, 
tereti, viridi pallido, rubro-maculato ; ovario curvato, costato, viridi, rubro-maculato ; sepalis in tubum 
vel evathum connatis, mento infra rotundo, ovatis, trinerviis, in cuspides obtusas planas terminatis, 
eburneis vel albis, roseo-tinetis, nerviis minute rubro-maculatis vel striatis, cuspidibus viridibus ; petalis 
lanceolatis, acuminatis, albis, apice viridi; labello obovato, recurvato, basi sulcata, margine anteriore 
crenato, apice verrucoso, albo, lineis roscis tribus parallelis ; columna curta, anguste alata, alba, apice 
tridenticulato.—Flore minore quam illo M. striatelle, sed illi affinii—Incognitum est qua habitet et quis 
collegerit. 
Leaf about 4 inches long, linear, stiff and fleshy, tridenticulate, narrowing below into a stout grooved 
petiole, sheathed at the base, green. 
Pedunele 2 inches Jong, terete, very slender and wiry, with two sheathing bracts, erect or semi- 
lateral from the base of the petiole, green, with minute crimson spots; flowering bract } inch long, 
membranous, apiculate, sheathing below, brownish. 
Ovary about 4 inch Jong, curved, with six rounded angles, pale green, with minute crimson spots. 
Sepals about 4 inch Jong, all cohering almost equally for } inch, forming a wide open tube, rounded 
helow, free portions oblong-ovate, 3-nerved, ivory-white or pale pink, with a few rose-coloured spots, 
especially along the nerves, and all tapering into flattened fleshy green points. 
Petals about | inch long, linear-oblong, apiculate, white, apex green. 
Lip longer than the petals, thickened and grooved at the base and united by a hinge to the foot of 
the column, oval-oblong, white, with three rose-coloured lines, anterior portion covered with asperities, 
pinkish. 
Column much shorter than the petals, winged, white, apex denticulate. 
HROUGH the kindness of Mr. F. W. Moore I have the opportunity of publishing 
a drawing of the only known plant of Afasdevallia Ortgiesiana, and although I have 
endeavoured in every way to ascertain its habitat and discoverer, the information which 
I have been able to obtain is of the scantiest. In 1891 the plant was purchased by 
Mr. Moore from Messrs. Seeger and Tropp—a firm which has now ceased to exist—and 
they had received it “from the Continent.”. Even Mons. Ortgies, of Zurich, after whom 
the plant is named, and to whom I have applied for information, can tell me nothing 
of its origin, or of the unknown friend who named it in his honour. No botanical 
description of the species has hitherto been published, and only a short account of it is 
given in the Orchid Review for Feb. 1895, of flowers from Mr. Moore’s plant. The 
nearest ally of AZ. Ortgiesiana is M. striatelia, but in that species the large development 
of the lip and petals in proportion to the size of the sepal-tube is rather less remarkable. 
In neither of these two little plants—the smallest of their group—is there any sign of a 
nectary at the base of the lip, and in placing them in the Section Coriacew I am 
following Professor Reichenbach, who classed M. striatella with M. campyloglossa. 
The woodcut is taken from a photograph kindly supplied by Mr. Moore. 
Explanation of Plate drawn from a plant in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position ;—1a, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;— 
3, lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf; natural size. 
