MASDEVALLIA ARMINII Rchb. f. 
Maspevarr1a Arintt Rehb. f. Bonplandia II (1854), p. 283; III. (1858), p- 69: Walp. Ann. VI. 
(1861), p. 189; Belg. Hort. 1873, p. 854; Orchidophile (Godefroy) vol. I. (1881-3), p. 368; Gard. 
Chron. 1881, pt. IL, p. 236 ; 1882, pt. IL, p. 102: Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 24. 
Leaf 2 or 3 inches long and about 2 inch wide, oblong-lanceolate, apex tridenticulate, bright green, 
narrowing below into a slender petiole, sheathed at the base, pale green, with minute blackish spots. 
Peduncle, including pedicel, about 23 inches long, slender, terete, attenuate towards the base, 
ascending from a joint at the base of the petiole, very pale green ; bract about 3 inch long, membranous, 
apiculate, oblong-ovate, sheathing below, with a minute rudimentary bud within at the base, dull pale 
green, with very minute black dots. 
Ovary 4 inch long, roundly triangular, with six grooves, whitish green, with a few very minute black 
dots. 
Sepals : dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for about 4 inch, forming a shallow, open tube, free 
portion 3 inch long and nearly the same in width, ovate, cucullate, 3-nerved, rose-purple, terminating in a 
slender orange-yellow tail, about 2 inches long ; lateral sepals cohering for nearly 4 inch, free portion 
4 inch long and the same in width, triangular-ovate, 3-nerved, rose-lilac, with a small dark purple spot at 
the base of each, and terminating in very slender orange-yellow tails 1} inch long; all sepals pale and 
semi-transparent at the base, the inner surface covered with very minute semi-translucent asperities, and 
the central nerve outwardly carinate. 
Petals nearly } inch long, oblong, narrowing towards the apex, with a broad keel and angle on the 
anterior margin, very pale yellow, shining and fleshy, apex tridentate. 
Lip a little shorter than the petals, oblong, fleshy at the base and along the centre, united to the 
curved foot of the column by a very elastic hinge, yellowish tinged with pink, semi-transparent, apex 
slightly recurved, covered with small dark purple spots, and having a dark. purple velvety boss in the 
centre. 
Column equalling the lip in length, slightly winged, with a triangular projection on each side near 
the foot, pale yellow, blackish-crimson at the apex and base, apex dentate. 
MMASPEVALLIA ARMINII was first described by Professor Reichenbach in 1854, 
from dried specimens collected by Louis Schlim in the mountains around Ocafia 
and Pamplona, in the Province of Santander, Colombia. No date is assigned to his 
discovery, but it appears to have been prior to the year 1849, when the plant was found 
by Hermann Wagener at La Baja, flowering in January at an elevation of 9,000 feet. 
The internal structure of M. Arminii differs from that of other species in the 
remarkable projection upon each side of the base of the column, shown at fig. 4 of the 
accompanying Plate. In the living flower this projection is closely surrounded, or 
embraced, by the curved angle of the petal, and must be designed to serve some pur- 
pose, at present unknown, in the fertilisation of the flowers by insects. 
I am informed by Mr. F. Sander, who first imported living plants of JZ. Arminii, 
that his collector found it growing smothered in mosses in the forks and branches of 
trees, on the western slopes of the Andes of Ecuador, the habitat of WZ. rosea. 
Explanation of Plate, drawn from a plant at Newbattle Abbey: 
Fig. 1, petal, lip, and column, in natural position 3—la, section of ovary ;—2, petal, inner side ;— 
4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, natural size. 
3, lip ;—4, column ; 
