MASDEVALLIA ERYTHROCHATE Rechb. f. 
Masprvarria erytarocuatr Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1882, pt. IL., p. 392 ; Orchidophile (Godefroy) 1882, 
p. 423 ; Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889) p. 42. 
Var. Gaskelliana=Masdevallia Gaskelliana Rehb. £. Gard. Chron. 1883, pt. IL., p. 294 ; Orchidophile 
(Godefroy) 1884, p. 37 ; Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 44. 
Var. astuta=Masdevallia astuta Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1886, pt. IL, p. 584; Orchidophile (Godefroy) 
1888, p. 354; Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 25. 
Leaf 6 or 8 inches long, linear-lanceolate, carinate, acutely tridenticulate, bright green, narrowing 
below into a grooved petiole, sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle about 5 inches long, terete, slender, jointed, with a sheathing apiculate bract at each joint, 
lateral or descending from the base of the petiole, with two or three flowers expanding in succession, dull 
purplish-green ; flowering bract about 2 inch long, ovate-apiculate, sheathing below, pale green. 
Ovary nearly 4 inch long, curved, with six rounded angles, crimson-purple. 
Sepals : dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for 4 inch, forming a wide shallow cup, free portion 
triangular-ovate for about 4 inch ; lateral sepals cohering for } inch, rounded beneath, free portions 
triangular-ovate for more than } inch; all creamy white, tinged with yellow, and more or less spotted 
with crimson-purple, the inner surface covered with small elongated papille, with numerous nerves, of 
which the central ones are prominent on the outer surface, terminating in slender terete crimson-purple 
tails.1 or 2 inches long. 
Petals about } inch long, oblong, margins angled, apex bilobed, with a mass of minute dark- 
brown papille within the cleft, white or pale pink, with a few brown spots, apex yellowish. 
Lip about § inch long, curved and fleshy at the base, and united to the foot of the column by a very 
flexible hinge, deeply grooved, the anterior portion saceate, with three central keels and five or six 
smaller bifurcated keels radiating towards the toothed margin, very pale pink, sometimes nearly white, 
with a very few pale pink spots. 
Column a little longer than the petals, narrowly winged, apex denticulate, pale yellow. 
HE first specimens of Musdevallia erythrochete were introduced from Central 
America by Mr. Sander, of St. Albans, in 1882. Numerous varieties are now 
known, and two of these were named by Reichenbach as distinet species—M. astuta, 
brought from Costa Rica by Carder, and MZ. Glaskelliana, a plant with smaller leaves and 
flowers, of which the habitat is unknown. One beautiful variety has much wider leaves 
than the plant here represented, and larger flowers, which are nearly white, delicately 
tinged with sulphur-yellow, and with only a few bright crimson spots, the tails being 
reddish-crimson and the lip pink. The accompanying woodcut is from a photograph of 
this variety. 
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 ;— 
2a, petal, side ;—8, lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, 
natural size. 
