MASDEVALLIA PICTURATA Rchb. f. 
Masprvarrta prorurara 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. 
L, p. 10; Trans. Linn. Soe., vol. IL., pt. 13, p- 281, Bot. Roraima Exped. 1884, E. F. im. Thurn. 
M. meleagris Rehb. f. Xen. Orch. I. (1858), p. 198, pl. 75, fig. 1=M. picturata Rehb. f., Otia Bot. Hamb. 
p. 16 (1878), non. MZ. meleagris Lindl. Ann. nat. hist. vol. XV. (1845), p. 257. 
Leaf 25 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, obtusely tridenticulate, fleshy, narrowing below into a slender 
grooved petiole sheathed at the base, dull green, the older leaves spotted with dull brown. 
Peduncle about 24 inches long, slender, terete, erect, with one or two sheathing bracts pale green ; 
2 5) ? ? } 3 ? 5 3) 
flowering bract 2 inch long, apiculate, ovate, almost concealing the ovary, pale yellowish-green. 
Ovary § inch long, with six strongly crenate wings, bright green. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal entirely free from the lateral sepals, nearly $ inch long, oval-oblong, 3-nerved, 
very pale yellow, with numerous velvety crimson spots, terminating in a slender bristle-like tail 1} inch 
long, brownish-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 4 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 3 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 } inch long, slender at the base, winged, apex green and crimson. 
Ji A fo}) ? te ee) 5 
MM ASDEVALLIA 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 MZ. 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 MZ. meleagris, and that the plant represented 
in his Plate was MZ. picturata, not the true M. 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 M. 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 M. 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. 
MM. 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 ;—1a, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;—3, 
lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ;—all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, natural size. 
