MASDEVALLIA PERISTERIA Rehb. f. 
Masprvatiia Peristerta Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1874, pt. I, p. 500; 1881, pt. IL, p. 336 ; Bot. Mag., 
t. 6159; Flore des Serres, 1877, vol. XXII. t. 2346; Mlustr. Hort. 1878, vol. XXV. ser. 3, 
t. 327, p. 152. 
Leaf about 5 inches long, linear-lanceolate, thick and fleshy, tridenticulate, narrowing below into a 
slender petiole, dark green, sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle 23 inches long, terete, ascending from a joint near the base of the petiole, with two 
sheathing bracts, pale green, sometimes spotted with crimson ; flowering bract } or 3 inch long, 3-nerved, 
sheathing below, ovate and apiculate above, pale green or brownish, and having within at the base a small 
rudimentary flower-bud. 
Ovary 4 inch long, curved, with six rounded angles, bright green and shining. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for about 3 inch, forming a wide tube, gibbous 
beneath ; lateral sepals cohering for nearly 1} inch ; all triangular-ovate, 3-nerved, greenish-yellow with 
numerous dark crimson spots, and tapering into fleshy tails about 1} inch long, flattened at the base, 
triquetrous towards the apex, yellow, greenish at the back. 
Petals about 4 inch long, oblanceolate, curved, fleshy, shining, pale green, sometimes with a few 
brown spots, apex minutely denticulate, anterior margin slightly keeled, with colourless viscid matter 
beneath. 
Lip 4 inch long, pandurate, base fleshy and deeply grooved, with a small concave nectary on each 
side, centre with two longitudinal elevated lines, and two rugose lateral keels, greenish white, spotted and 
margined with deep purple, apex much reflexed, crenate and rough with numerous, dark crimson papille. 
Column nearly 4 inch long, broadly winged, attenuate below, green, foot rich crimson, apex white, 
slightly denticulate. 
7 ust appear to be two or three varieties of Masdevallia Peristeria, although none 
of them are very strikingly distinct in their characteristics. Consul Lehmann 
informs me that the original form described by Professor Reichenbach (Gard. Chron. 
1874, pt. I, p. 500) is not now in cultivation, and that it differed from the variety 
universally known in collections and figured in the accompanying plate, in having more 
brightly coloured flowers and longer tails. A coloured sketch in my possession, drawn 
by Consul Lehmann in the actual habitat of the plant, of the variety which he considers 
to have been the first introduced into Europe, represents the flowers of a bright golden 
yellow spotted with crimson-purple, and having yellow tails nearly two inches long and 
more slender than those of the best-known variety. 
M. Peristeria was first imported from Colombia in 1873, by Gustav Wallis, while 
collecting for Messrs. Veitch, who supplied Professor Reichenbach with the fresh flowers 
named and described by him in 1874. On referring to Mr. H. Veitch for information 
respecting the appearance of these first imported plants, I cannot, however, learn that 
they differed in any way from the variety now in cultivation. 
Professor Reichenbach appears to have suspected the existence of two varieties of 
M. Peristeria, for he remarks (Gard. Chron. 1874, pt. T., p. 500): “If this plant has ever 
been observed before, it was by my friend Wagener, in Venezuela. T have a sketch of 
