MASDEVALLIA MACRURA Rechb. f. 
Maspevatiaa Macrura Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1874, pt. 1, p. 240; 1877, pt. I, p. 42, fig. 2; 1881, pt. 
IL, p. 136, fig. 65 ; Linnwa, XLT. (1877). p. 115 De Puydt, Les Orchidées, p. 100 ; Orchidophile 
(Godefroy), 1883, p. 642; Lindenia, vol. TIT. (1887), t. 113. 
Leaf 10 or 12 inches long, 2 or 24 inches wide. oblong, carinate, obtusely tridenticulate, erect, bright 
creen, narrowing below into a slender petiole, deeply grooved, pale green, with large membranous sheaths 
at the base. 
Peduncle 9 or 10 inches long, terete, ascending from a joint at the base of the petiole, with one or 
two sheathing bracts. pale green ; flowering bract 3 inch long, 5-nerved, apiculate, sheathing below, entirely 
covering the ovary, often with a small bud within at the base, pale green. 
Ovary about % inch long, terete, with six indistinct grooves, pale green, sometimes spotted with brown. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for about 4 inch, forming a wide tube, oblong-ovate, 
z-nerved, whitish at the base, then orange-vellow, shaded and spotted with reddish-crimson ; lateral sepals 
cohering for nearly 1 inch, oblong-oyate, with four strongly carinate nerves, three of which bifurcate. 
dotted with blackish-erimson papilla. orange-vellow deeply shaded with crimson, all tapering into slender 
flattened vellow tails about 4 inches long. 
Petals about 2 inch Jong, oblong, curved, fleshy, anterior margin much thickened, posterior margin 
acutely angled. apex very obtuse. bright yellow with brown spots. 
Lip 4 inch long, oblong, fleshy, with two deep nectaries near the base, and two longitudinal keels, 
yellow spotted with dark crimson, apex reflexed, much thickened, orange-yellow with a few dark spots. 
rough with papille arranged in three obscure lines. 
Column about } inch Jong, winged. apex entire or slightly crenate, yellow, closely spotted on the foot 
with crimson. 
WN ASDEVALLLA MACRURA was discovered in 1871 by Roezl, near Sonson, in the 
province of Antioquia, and was described in 1874 by Professor Reichenbach from 
dried specimens. The first living plants were imported in 1876 by Mr. Shuttleworth, 
and first flowered in the collection of Mr. Bull in 1877. In the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
1877, pt. 1, p. 12, Professor Reichenbach states that a short-tailed variety was collected 
by Patin, a Belgian traveller; and a gigantic variety is mentioned by Roezl in the 
following account of the town of Sonson, taken from Godefroy’s “ Orchidophile,” 1888, 
p. 642, from which we learn that Sonson isa little town of 4—5,000 inhabitants, situated in 
the State of Antioquia, on a small tributary of the Rio Cauca, on the boundary, and a 
little to the north of, the State of the same name. This town deserves to be called the 
city of Masdevallias, for Roezl found there, on the roof of one house, as many as four 
species of this genus, growing with extraordinary vigour ; and in the neighbourhood of 
the town more than twenty-five species besides, growing at altitudes varying from 2,000 
to 2,500 metres (6,500 to 8,125 feet). Roezl adds that the local name for AZ, macrura_is 
