MASDEVALLIA PICTURATA Rchb. f. 
Maspevanura piercrata Rehb. f. Xen. Orch. I. (1858), p. 198, pl. 75, fig. 1 (as M. meleagris) ; Otia 
Bot. Hamb. p. 16 (1878); Orchidophile (Godefroy), vol. I. (1881), p. 193; Gard. Chron. 1882, pt. 
1, p.10; Trans. Linn. Soe., vol. IL., pt. 13, p. 281, Bot. Roraima Exped. 1884, E. F. im. Thurn. 
M. meleaeris Rehb. f. Xen. Orch. I. (1858), p. 198, pl. 75, fig. 1=M. picturata Rehbb. f., Otia Bot. Hamb. 
p. 16 (1878), non. MW. meleagris Lindl. Ann. nat. hist. vol. XV. (1845), p. 257. 
Leaf 2 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, obtusely tridenticulate, fleshy, narrowing below into a slender 
Sy 
grooved petiole sheathed at the base, dull green, the older leaves spotted with dull brown. 
Peduncle about 2} inches long, slender, terete, erect, with one or two sheathing bracts, pale green ; 
flowering bract 3 inch long, apiculate, ovate, almost concealing the ovary, pale yellowish-green. 
Ovary 4 inch long, with six strongly erenate wings, bright green. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal entirely free from the lateral sepals, nearly 4 inch long, oval-oblong, 3-nerved, 
very pale vellow, with numerous velvety crimson spots, terminating in a slender bristle-like tail 14 inch 
long, hrownish-crimson ; lateral sepals cohering only near the base, about } inch long, oblong-ovate, 
3-nerved. nerves carinate without, pale yellow, bright orange at the base, spotted with velvety crimson, 
terminating in slender bristle-like tails 1 inch long, brownish-crimson. 
Petals } inch long, ligulate, with a fleshy process within the anterior margin near the base, apex 
acutely tridenticulate, the central tooth prolonged, pale yellow. 
Lip about 2 inch long. united by a hinge to the foot of the column, grooved at the base, with two 
lateral lobes. apex with three rounded lines, orange-yellow, spotted with reddish-brown. 
Column nearly 4 inch long, slender at the base, winged, apex green and crimson. 
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i) SSID ee PICTURATA was discovered in July 1850, by Wagener, near 
Caracas in Venezuela, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, and was also found at Tovar in 
1854 by Fendler. Professor Reichenbach appears at one time to have considered this 
species to be identical with MW. meleagris Lindl., for he published in 1858 a drawing of 
M. picturata under that name (Xen. Orch. I. p. 198, pl. 75, fig. 1). Later, however, he 
explains that he had never seen Lindley’s ML. meleagris, and that the plant represented 
in his Plate was IM. picturata, not the true Mf. meleagris of Lindley (Otia Bot. Hamb. 
1878, p. 16). The latter plant—of which the original specimen, discovered in 1845 by 
Hartweg between the Paramo de San Fortunato and Fusagasuga, Bogota, is preserved 
in the Royal Herbarium, Kew—is most distinct from JZ. picturata, the leaves being more 
rounded, on a slender petiole, and the flower-stem nearly five inches in height. The 
flower is differently shaped, and the dorsal sepal is marked with narrow and regular bands 
of purple. The strongest point of difference is perhaps the slender wingless ovary, the 
ovary of JZ. picturata having, as will be seen in the accompanying Plate, fig. la, six 
remarkably waved or crenate wings, a characteristic not present in so great a degree in 
any other species yet known. 
M. picturata is especially interesting in having a very remarkable geographical dis- 
tribution. of which the extreme limits, as at present known, are: On the south-east 
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 s—4. column ;—4a, apex of column ;—al/ enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, natural size. 
