MASDEVALLIA CARDERI Rchb. f. 
Maspevauria Carpert Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1883, pt. I., p. 784; pt. IL, p. 181, fig. 30; 1884, pt. L., 
p. 741, in group fig. 141; 1890, pt. IL, p. 76; Orchidophile (Godefroy) 1883, p. 397; Veitch 
Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 27; Bot. Mag. t. 7125 (1890). 
Leaf 4 or 5 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, carinate at the back, apex tridenticulate, bright green, 
narrowing below into a slender grooved petiole, sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle 2 or 3 inches long, descending or lateral from the base of the petiole, terete, slender, with 
numerous small sheathing apiculate bracts, dark green and crimson ; flowering bract about 3 inch long, 
oblong-ovate, carinate, apiculate, 3-nerved, sheathing, pale green. 
Ovary nearly } inch long, crimson, with six crenate green wings. 
Sepals cohering equally for about 4 inch, campanulate, free portion triangular-ovate for nearly 3 inch, 
the principal nerves carinate, white tinged with pale yellow, spotted externally with purplish-crimson, the 
internal surface closely covered with short red-brown hairs, and having a few small purple spots, each 
sepal terminating in very slender tails about 1 inch long, yellow with small crimson spots. 
Petals about 4 inch long, oblong-ovate, cleft at the apex, with minute papille within the cleft, 
yellowish, with red-brown spots and papillee. 
Lip about 4 inch long, fleshy at the base and deeply cleft, united to the foot of the column by a 
flexible hinge, anterior portion concave, shell-like, with a fleshy central keel, pure white. 
Column 4 inch long, winged, apex denticulate, white, tinged with reddish-brown. 
8 5) 5 ? ’ ’ 5 
ASDEVALLIA CARDERI was first described by Professor Reichenbach in 1883, 
from specimens found by Carder near Frontino, in the Western Cordillera of 
Colombia, and his plants were the first to flower in cultivation, in the establishment of 
Messrs. Shuttleworth and Carder, at Clapham. 
Professor Reichenbach had previously received dried flowers of this species from 
Consul F. CG. Lehmann, who discovered it in November, 1877, and it is impossible to 
say why he published no description of these, the first specimens ever sent to Europe. 
The plant represented in the accompanying Plate is the variety with long slender 
tails, most common in cultivation. Fig. 6 of the same Plate represents the rarer variety 
with short blunt tails, and was drawn from a flower sent to me in June, 1889, by Mr. F. 
W. Moore, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin. 
I am informed by Consul Lehmann that the leaves of the wild plants having thick 
and short-tailed flowers, differ from those of the slender long-tailed variety in being 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newhbattle Abbey : 
Fig, 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position ;—la, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;—2a, 
3, lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, 
petal, side view ; 
natural size ;—6, flower of short-tailed variety, natural size. 
