MASDEVALLIA INFRACTA. 
In 1836 the plant was found by Dr. Gardner, who sent home numerous dried 
specimens, some of which are preserved in the British Museum of Natural History, and 
others—together with a drawing by the collector—in the Royal Herbarium, Kew. The 
first living plants imported into England were sent in 1837 by Dr. Gardner to Messrs. 
Loddiges, in whose establishment at Hackney they flowered the following year. 
Variations occasionally occur in the colour of the flowers, and one variety, introduced 
by Mr. Bull, was named by Professor Reichenbach var. purpurea. It has large flowers 
of an uniform shade of violet-purple. In some plants the winged or angled stem, 
characteristic of most species allied to M. infracta, is replaced by a slender rounded stem. 
The only known habitat of JZ. infracta is Brazil, where it is found in the mountains 
called bythe Portuguese Serra dos Orgaos, or Organ Mountains, from a fancied resemblance 
of their granite peaks to the pipes of an organ. These peaks form part of a mountain — 
range situated about sixty miles to the north of Rio de Janeiro, branching out in various 
directions, and stretching from near Bahia in lat. 12°S., to S. Catharina in lat. 29° S. 
Many small rivers take their rise in the Organ Mountains, spreading into wide clear pools, 
and traversing valleys of deep rich alluvial soil before falling into the Bay of Rio. The 
sides of the mountains are clothed with forest trees of large size, and upon the mossy 
stems and branches, as well as on the sides of banks, WZ. infracta was found in abundance 
by Dr. Gardner, flowering from November to January. All the steeper declivities are 
overspread with beautiful flowering shrubs, the summits of the smaller peaks being com- 
posed of enormous loose blocks of granite covered with lichens and small Orchids. The 
summit of the highest peak, about 7,500 feet above the level of the sea, is formed of one 
broad flat surface of granite of considerable extent, bare for the most part, but here and 
there covered with small stunted shrubs, and showing many little excavations in the 
surface, filled with excellent water. 
The temperature during the cool months of May and June is sometimes as low as 
32° just before daybreak, but in the hot and rainy months of J anuary and February 
it rises to 84° at noon. Violent thunder-storms occur almost daily, coming on regularly 
at 4 p.m., and leaving the evening atmosphere fresh and cool. 
The above description of the Organ Mountains is taken from Dr. Gardner's “Travels 
in Brazil,” published in 1849. 
