MASDEVALLIA RACEMOSA Lindl. 
MASDEVALLIA RAcEMOsA Lindl. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. XV. (1845), p. 256; Benth. Plant. Hartw. (1846), 
p- 258; Rehb. f. Bonplandia TIT. (1855), p. 69; Walp. Ann. VI. (1861), p. 193; Gard. Chron. 1881, 
pt. IL, p. 336; 1883, pt. II., p. 466; 1884, pt. I., p. 736 and 737, fig. 139; Veitch Manual Orch. 
pt. V. (1889), p. 58. 
Leaf 4 or 5 inches long and about ? inch wide, oblong-ovate, apex tridenticulate, margins recurved, 
dull greyish-green, narrowing below into a slender grooved petiole, sheathed at the base and produced 
from a creeping rhizome at intervals of 1 or 14 inch. 
: Peduncle 8 to 15 inches long, erect, slender, terete, dull reddish-green, many-flowered, the flowers 
developing in succession, two or three only being expanded at the same time, the pedicel of each having a 
sheathing brown membranous bract at the base, 3 inch long, embracing the peduncle and the pedicel. 
Ovary nearly } inch long, with six rounded angles, bright crimson. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for about $ inch, forming a straight narrow tube, 
free portion ovate-triangular for 4 inch, 3-nerved, terminating in a tail about } inch long ; lateral sepals 
cohering for 1 inch or a little more, broadly cordate, 3-nerved, terminating in a small blunt point ; all the 
sepals orange-scarlet with the nerves and margins vermilion, tube yellowish-scarlet. 
Petals } inch long, oblong-ovate, anterior margin slightly thickened, pale yellow. 
Lip about 2 inch long, linear, with two slightly carinate longitudinal lines, ivory-white, united to the 
foot of the column by a flexible hinge. 
Column a little longer than the petals, slender, very narrowly winged, apex very minutely dentate, 
pale yellow and pink, with a few small pink spots, and one deep purple spot on each side of the foot. 
y, 
i\ ASDEVALLIA RACEMOSA was discovered near Popayan by Hartweg, whose 
dried specimens were named and described in 1845 by Dr. Lindley. A second 
description, also written by Dr. Lindley, appeared in May, 1846, in Bentham’s “ Plantas 
Hartwegianas,” a work begun in 1839 and published in parts ; and the date 1839 on the 
title-page has caused the erroneous impression that the plant was first described in that 
year. Hartweg states that he discovered the plant in woods at Pitayo and also on the 
slopes of Purace near Popayan, at ‘an elevation of 10,000 to 14,500 feet. It was subse- 
quently found by other collectors in the same part of the Central Cordillera of Popayan. 
No living plants, however, were sent to this country until 1883, when Messrs. Shuttle- 
worth and Carder succeeded in importing a small number. The difficulties of importing 
plants—and, it is said, especially Masdevallia racemosa—from such high altitudes, are 
numerous, owing chiefly to the great difference of temperature between the cool fresh 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newbattle Abbey : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position ;—la, 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. 
