MASDEVALLIA TROGLODYTES Morr. 
Maspevatiia Trociopytes Morr. Belg. Hort. XX VII. (1877), p. 97, t. V., Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 
1877, pt. II, p. 300; 1881, pt. IL, p. 409; 1883, pt. 1, p. 278; Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. 
(1889), p. 67. 
Leaf 7 or 8 inches long, linear-lanceolate, carinate, margins waved, apex tridenticulate, narrowing 
helow into a slender petiole, sheathed at the base, bright green. (In wild plants the leaves are 10 inches 
or a foot long.) 
Peduncle about 3 inches long, terete, slender, lateral or descending from the base of the petiole, with 
numerous bracts, dull purple ; flowering bract 2 inch long, ovate, apiculate, sheathing below, pale green 
tinged with purple. 
Ovary 4%; inch long, with six rounded angles, dull purple. 
Sepals cohering for about } inch, forming a wide campanulate tube, free portions roundly triangular, 
with numerous nerves, the central ones carinate on the outer surface, reddish-brown within, covered with 
minute papillz, with a white space and a few crimson spots in the centre beneath the lip, outer surface 
dull white tinged with green, nerved with dark red, all the sepals terminating in slender tails 1 or 14 inch 
long, dark red. 
Petals 4 inch long, linear at the base, margins slightly angled, cleft at the apex into two lobes, 
between which is a mass of minute blackish-purple papilla, dull yellow, with a blackish-purple 
triangular spot. 
Lip longer than the petals, grooved and fleshy at the base, and united to the foot of the column by a 
flexible hinge, anterior portion shallow, shell-like, with one fleshy central keel and a lateral bi-lobed keel 
on each side, pale pink. 
Column shorter than the lip, stout, narrowly winged, apex denticulate, yellow. 
iq PE habitat of Masdevallia Troglodytes is El Roblarcito, near Sonson, in Antioquia, 
where Consul Lehmann has found it at an elevation of 2,400 métres (7,800 feet), 
flowering in December. In a wild state it is not a common species, frequenting only a 
small area, and growing sparingly in thick woods, close to the ground upon the trunks 
of trees. 
The first cultivated plants were sent to Belgium by M. Lalinde, a resident at 
Medellin, Antioquia, and these flowered in 1876 in the collection of Mons. Oscar- 
Lamarche, at Liége. It is now to be seen in every collection of Masdeyallias, flourishing 
in large masses of slender leaves, and producing its dull red-brown flowers in great 
profusion. 
The name Troglodytes, or “ cave-dweller,” chosen for it by Mons. Edouard Morren, 
is as fanciful as any name given by Professor Reichenbach to other species of the 
“Chimera section.” 
In general characteristics MM. Troglodytes is closely allied to M. Houtteana, and 
may perhaps ultimately be included among the varieties of that species. The chief 
differences are in the colouring and in the rays within the lip, but the latter feature 
does not appear to be uniform in either plant. 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newbattle Abbey : 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position ;—1a, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;—2a, 
petal, side ;—3, lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, 
natural size. 
