MASDEVALLIA OPHIOGLOSSA Rcehb. f. 
MasprvaLiia opuiogiossa Rehb. f. Otia Bot. Hamb. (1878), p. 17. 
Leaf nearly 2 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, apex tridenticulate, bright green, narrowing below into 
a slender grooved petiole, sheathed at the base. 
D a oye ae . * 2 
Peduncle about 24 inches long, terete, slender, pale green, ascending from the sheath at the base of 
the petiole ; bract 43; inch long, apiculate, sheathing the base of the ovary, pale brownish-green. 
Ovary very minute, with six crenate keels, pale green. 
Sepals cohering for nearly 3 inch, forming a narrow tube, gibbous below, free portion very minute, 
triangular, white, pale yellow at the base, terminating in slender pale yellow tails about 3 inch long. 
Petals very minute, linear-lanceolate, angled on the anterior margin, white. 
Lip a little longer than the petals, united by a hinge to the curved foot of the column, cordate-oblong, 
narrowed towards the apex, with two pointed lateral lobes, white. 
“ Columna clavata,’ Rehb. f. 
} ASDEVALLIA OPHIOGLOSSA was discovered in 1877, on the Western Andes 
of Quito, by Consul Lehmann, who sent dried specimens to Professor Reichenbach 
to be named and described. This species has never been in cultivation, nor has any 
drawing of it hitherto been published, and we are indebted to Mr. Lehmann for the 
accompanying Plate, as well as for information respecting its habitat. He found the 
plant in Ecuador, growing on steep walls of volcanic rock in thick damp woods near 
Quito, and also near Silante and Canzacoto on the western slopes of the Cerro del 
Corazon, at an elevation of 1,800 to 2,100 métres (5,850 to 6,825 feet). It is not an 
uncommon plant, and flowers from the middle of January to the end of March, some- 
times in great profusion. In the Boissier Herbarium there are fine specimens found in 
the same locality by Consul Lehmann, and named by him var. maxima. 
The species most nearly allied to J. ophioglossa are M. Wendlandiana and 
M. pumila, of which the latter is not at present in cultivation. 
Explanation of Plate, from a drawing by Consul Lehmann : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column ;—2, petal ;—3, lip ;—3a, back of lip ; all much enlarged. 
