MASDEVALLIA CHESTERTONII. Native of New Granada. 
One of the finest of the first type, with tufted leaves, about 6 inches long by an 
inch in width, broad in the middle, pointed at the tip, channelled, dull green in 
colour, and with only a suggestion of a stalk. The sheathed scapes are pendulous. 
Each bears a single singular flower which is about 24 inches in width with spread- 
ing ovate sepals about an inch long terminating in a curved tail of the same 
length. They are yellowish-green in colour, spotted and streaked with purple. The 
club-shaped petals are small and are yellow tipped with black. The reniform, con- 
cave lip is 3 inch in width, and is a palish-red veined with a deeper shade. Flowers 
Spring and Summer, the blooms lasting for about three weeks. 
MASDEVALLIA CHIMAERA. Native of Colombia. 
A most striking and probably one of the most fantastic of all orchids—which 
has given it its name of “The Dogfish Orchid.” “Chimaera” in Greek mythology 
was the son of Typhon and Echidna, and had the body of a goat, the head of a 
lion and the tail of a dragon. The plant has leaves up to a foot long, an inch and 
a half in width, dull green in colour, very slightly channelled, and terminating in 
inch-long stalks. The solitary flowered scape is up to 9 inches in length. The 
flowers have three triangular sepals joined at the bases, forming a shallow cup. 
They narrow into long, thin, straight tails about 44 inches in length. The inner 
surface is creamy yellow covered with large spots and blotches of purple-brown. 
It is thickly covered with soft, light brown hairs. Petals small. Lip small and 
pouch-like, slightly dentated at the edges and creamy-white in colour. Flowers 
late Spring and lasts three to five weeks. Occasionally this species produces a 
succession of flowers from the one scape. 
Var. Backhouseana.—Darker in colour. 
Var. Wallisii—Tails shorter, colour lighter. 
MASDEVALLIA COCCINEA. Native of Colombia. 
This little plant of the second group grows in the Province of Pamplona on the 
western slopes of the Andes. It grows in tufts with leathery, strap-shaped leaves 
about 5 inches in length, round at the apex, and tapering to a stalk at the base. 
The scapes are about a foot in length and are topped with a single bright scarlet 
flower with a short, curved tube, which, like the upper sepals, is a bright rosy 
pink. Flowers in Spring, the blooms lasting some weeks in perfection. There are 
many varieties of this species, and all those varieties once classed as M. Harryana 
are now treated as varieties of M. coccinea. The principal of these are:— 
(1) Coccinea var. alba maculata.—Flowers white tipped with pink, the 
apices of the sepals being spotted, and the mouth of the throat marked 
with four short magenta stripes. (Syn. Harryana alba maculata.) 
(2) Coccinea var. Armeniaca.—Flowers larger, deep apricot, marked with 
a yellow eye. (Syn. Harryana Armeniaca.) 
(3) Coccinea var. atrosanguinea—Flowers large, crimson tinted and 
magenta. 
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