MASDEVALLIA BELLA Rchb. f. 
MasprvaLiia Betta Rchb.f. Gard. Chron. 1878, pt. I., p. 725; 1880, pt. L, p. 760, fig. 131 p. 756, 
and fig. 132 p. 757; 1881, pt. IL, p. 236, fig. 50, and p. 846 ; Floral Mag. 1881, n. ser., t. 433 ; 
Belgique Horticole, 1884, vol. XXXIV. p. 57, t. 3. 
Leaf 6 or 8 inches long, and about 1 inch broad, oblong-lanceolate, sharply tridenticulate, carinate, 
bright green, narrowing into a slender, deeply-grooved, pale-green petiole, sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle 6 or 7 inches long, attenuate towards the base, terete, jointed, with a sheathing bract at 
each joint, dark purple, or dull green shaded with purple, descending from the base of the petiole ; 
flowering bract about } inch long, with several nerves, carinate, apiculate, pale green shaded with purple 
or crimson. 
Ovary about + inch long, attenuate near the base, with six crenate wings, green and purple. 
Sepals : dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for nearly 4 inch, 7-nerved, triangular for 1 inch or 
more, tapering into a slender tail 35 inches long ; lateral sepals cohering for about 1 inch, 7-nerved, ovate, 
tapering into slender tails 3 inches long, sometimes curved inwards so as to cross each other ; all sepals 
pale yellow, bordered and spotted with crimson, and covered with short thick hairs, inner half of the 
lateral sepals scarcely spotted ; tails all purple-crimson. 
Petals } inch long, linear at the base, angled on both margins, cleft at the apex, outwardly broadly 
winged, inwardly triangular and denticulate, bright yellow spotted with rust-red, outer wing with 
numerous radiating lines of minute papilla. 
Lip about 4 inch long, and # inch broad, with a slender, fleshy, deeply-grooved claw, united by a 
delicate hinge to the base of the column, reniform and concave, with numerous radiating and bifurcating 
keels, white with pale pink spots upon the claw. 
Column about 4 inch long, thick, curved, rust-red, pink at the base, apex minutely denticulate. 
Ve BELLA is one of the most curious of the genus, and may be 
distinguished from all other species by the delicate whiteness of the shell-like 
lip, and the rounded, wide-spreading yellow wings of the petals. Unlike most species 
allied to it, 7. bella apparently produces only one flower from each stem. It was 
discovered in 1873 by Gustav Wallis, in the mountains of Antioquia, and his dried 
specimens were sent to Professor Reichenbach, who, however, published his first descrip- 
tion of the species from other specimens, collected in 1878 by Boxall. The first living 
flowers seen in Europe were in the collection of Herr Wendland, at Hamburgh. 
