MASDEVALLIA ATTENUATA Rchb. f. 
Maspevaiiia arrenuata Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1871, p. 834; 1881, pt. IL, p. 236 ; Bot. Mag. t. 6273 
(1877) ; Godm. et Salv. Biologia Centr. Amer., Bot. Hemsley, vol. IIT. (1882-1886), p. 207. 
Leaf 3 inches long, linear-lanceolate, coriaceous, apex tridenticulate, narrowing below into a slender 
grooved petiole sheathed at the hase, green. 
Peduncle about 2 inches long, terete, slender, ascending from the base of the petiole, with two or 
three sheathing bracts, pale green, tinged with brown ; flowering bract 4 inch long, membranous, 
apiculate, sheathing below, pale brownish. 
Ovary 4; inch long, with six rounded angles, pale green. 
Sepals all cohering almost equally, forming a narrow tube, gibbous below, 3-nerved, free portion of 
the dorsal sepal ovate-triangular, white, with three crimson streaks, and terminating in a slender terete 
5 ; ; ’ s 
tail nearly 4 inch long ; free portion of lateral sepals oblong-ovate, white, with two crimson streaks, and 
terminating in slender terete tails 2 inch long; base of the tube yellow, tails orange, greenish at the 
back. : 
Petals a little more than } inch long, oblong-lanceolate, with wide angle on the anterior margin and 
an angled keel, white. 
Lip a little longer than the petals, base thickened and united by a hinge to the foot of the column, 
oblong-cordate, with two longitudinal angled keels, margins crenate, white tinged with pale yellow, apex 
a minute orange cushion, with crimson dots. 
Column shorter than the petals, winged, white and pale pink, broadly edged with crimson, apex 
? fo} ? ? fo) c] 
denticulate. 
N representing this plant as Masdevallia attenuata, it must be confessed that it is not 
exactly the same as that figured in the Botanical Magazine (t. 6273) under that 
name, and in order to show the differences between the two, I have reproduced a 
portion of that Plate at figs. 6 and 7. The flower here shows no crimson streaks, and 
the shape of the petal (fig. 7) is different, lacking the marginal keel and angle (fig. 2) 
remarkable in all the specimens which I have examined. The lip in both flowers is 
much the same in structure, and the two plants can, perhaps, hardly be specifically 
separated. The form represented in the Botanical Magazine appears to be very rare 
in cultivation, even if it now exists at all, for, in all the collections of Masdevallias—in 
this country and on the continent—whose owners have generously placed specimens at 
my disposal, the plant which I figure is grown as MM. attenuata. Nowhere have I been 
able to obtain, or to hear of, flowers similar to those drawn by Mr. Fitch for the Botanical 
Magazine, in 1877, which are, no doubt, the original form of the species named and 
described by Reichenbach in 1871. He states that the habitat of IZ. attenuata is Costa 
Rica, whence it was imported by Messrs. Veitch. 
Explanation of Plate : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position ;—la, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;— 
3, lip ;—4, column ;—4, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leat, natural size — 
6, flower and leaf copied from t. 6273 of the Botanical Magazine ;—7, petal, lip, and column, copied from 
fig. 2 of the same Plate. 
