THE 
GENUS MASDEVALLIA; 
ITS HISTORY, 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETC. 
N writing the history of the Genus Masdevallia, there is little to be added to the 
information already published. A few new species have been recently discovered 
and introduced to horticulture, but the keen interest in them which prevailed a few 
years ago, especially during the lifetime of Professor Reichenbach, has almost died out, 
and we no longer hear of fabulous prices paid for a fragment of a plant, consisting, 
perhaps, of only two or three leaves. This interest, which almost amounted to a mania, 
was, no doubt, partly caused by Reichenbach’s glowing and grotesque descriptions of 
the new species brought to his notice, for, since his death, it is remarkable that pur- 
chasers have been less eager to buy, and dealers consequently less enterprising in 
collecting, while the reduction of prices has brought even rare species within the means 
of almost every horticulturist. 
The first Masdevallia known to science was M. uniflora, which was discovered by 
the Spanish botanists, Ruiz and Pavon, in the Andes of Peru, during their residence 
in that country from 1777 to 1794, for the purpose of exploring the Cinchona forests in 
the interests of the Spanish Government. They founded upon it a new Genus in 
honour of their fellow-countryman Josepho Masdevall, a physician at the Court of 
Spain. MW. uniflora has never since been seen in its native habitat by any botanist, and 
only the most persistent enquiry has enabled me to collect the details of its history 
given in this work, with the first coloured drawing of the plant ever made. No other 
examples of the new Genus were made known until 1809, when WV. infracta was dis- 
covered in Brazil by Descourtilz, a French botanist and traveller, and this species, of 
which living plants were imported in 1828, was the first to flower in cultivation. In 
1833 M1. Caudata was discovered, and during the next twelve or fourteen years several 
other species, and from that time onwards their number has steadily increased, until, at 
the present time, between eighty and ninety are cultivated, and many others are known 
as Herbarium specimens or by description only. 
The geographical distribution of the Genus extends from Mexico, in about 20° N. 
lat., south-eastwards through the central Cordillera of Costa Rica, and the Isthmus of 
Panama, then running north-eastwards as far as the coast ranges of Venezuela, and 
southwards towards its centre in the Andes of Colombia. The southern limit on the 
western side of the continent is reached in the Peruvian Mountains at 16° or 17° S. lat., 
and on the eastern side in the Organ Mountains of Brazil, at 23° S. lat., where nine or 
ten species have been discovered. One is recorded from Mount Roraima, two or three 
from the hills of French and Dutch Guiana, and one only from the low alluvial region 
in the interior of the continent, the habitat of which is indicated on the annexed map 
by Senhor Rodriguez, hitherto the only discoverer of a Masdevallia so far from the sea- 
coast. The principal part of the area of geographical distribution—marked in yellow 
on the map—was indicated by Consul Lehmann himself, and may therefore be relied on 
as accurate. 
Masdevyallias have a very remarkable vertical range, extending almost from the 
level of the sea, where Consul Lehmann has found them upon the trunks and roots of 
trees growing close to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and from 195 feet in the marshy 
inland forests of Brazil, the habitat of J. Yauaperyensis, to 12,000 feet in the mountains 
of Peru and Colombia, where the brilliantly-coloured species of the Section Coccineee 
abound, and 14,500 feet in the Andes of Popayan, the home of JZ. Racemosa. 
