MASDEVALLIA TORTA Rchb. f. 
Maspevatuia Torta Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1883, pt. I, p. 110; Orcbidophile (Godefroy), vol. I. 
(1883), p. 795. 
Leaf 6 or 8 inches long, oblong-ovate, carinate, apex tridenticulate, much recurved, dark green, 
narrowing below into a slender grooved petiole, pale green spotted with crimson. 
Peduncle, including pedicel, 3 or 4 inches Jong, slender, erect, with two or three sheathing bracts, 
very pale green spotted with crimson ; flowering bract 2 inch long, 3-nerved, sheathing below, ovate and 
apiculate above, pale greenish-brown. 
Ovary about 3 inch long, with six rounded angles, whitish spotted with crimson. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for nearly 4 inch, forming a wide gibbous tube, ovate- 
triangular for about 8 inch, 5-nerved, semi-transparent, pale greenish-yellow, with red spots and dark red 
nerves ; lateral sepals cohering for 1 inch, oblong-ovate, with 5 bifurcated nerves, bright red with dark 
red nerves, and spotted externally with red ; all narrowing into slender, flattened, yellow tails, that of the 
dorsal sepal 3 inch, and those of the lateral sepals } inch long. 
Petals } inch long, oblong-ovate, thick and fleshy, broadly angled within on the anterior margin, with 
viscid matter below the angle, apiculate, shining, pale yellow, with two crimson central lines. 
Lip & inch long, cleft at the base, with a minute rounded nectary on each side, tongue-shaped, closely 
covered with minute silver-white hairs, purple-crimson, with one central and two lateral dark purple 
nerves, apex covered with small papille. 
Column } inch long, pale green, edged and spotted on the foot with crimson, and having four or five 
crimson lines down the inner surface, apex denticulate. 
TERY little information can be gathered concerning Masdevallia torta, even the name 
of its discoverer being unobtainable. It was first imported from Colombia for 
Mr. Bull, and from his collection the specimens described in 1883 by Professor 
Reichenbach in the Gardeners’ Chronicle were supplied. It appears still to be rather a 
scarce and little-known species, and even to be confused with JZ. leontoglossa, although 
a very slight examination of the two species would immediately prove their distinctness. 
Tam informed by Consul Lehmann that he has found flowers of JZ. torta with longer 
tails than those in the accompanying plate, and that in these flowers the tails are some- 
times twisted, in this respect resembling the specimens described by Professor 
Reichenbach, which suggested to him the name of “ torta.” 
Consul Lehmann gives the habitat of this species in the following note : 
Masdeeallia torta grows in dense and damp woods, upon trees which are thickly covered 
with mosses, near El Retiro, in the department of Antioquia, at an elevation of 2,200 to 
2,400 metres (7,150 to 7,800 feet) above the sea. It flowers in October and Noveinber. 
The annual average temperature of this region is from 15° to 16° Centigrade (59° to 
60-8 Fahrenheit). 
F. C. Leamann. 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newbattle Abbey : 
Fig. 1, petals, lip, and column, -in natural position ;—la, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;—3, 
lip ;—sa, base of lip, showing nectaries (much enlarged) ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column; all 
enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, natural size. 
