MASDEVALLIA IONOCHARIS Rchb. f. 
Maspevarr1a 1onocuarts Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1875, pt. II., p. 388 ; 1881, pt. IL, p. 305 ; Bot. Mag. 
t. 6262 (1876) ; Garden 1876, pt. IL., p. 503 with fig. ; Gartenflora (Regel) vol. XXVI. (1877), 
p. 87 ; vol. XXVII. (1878), p. 207, with fig. p. 208 ; Orchidophile (Godefroy) vol. I. (1881-3), 
Pp. 666, with fig. as in Gartenflora ; Veitch Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 48. 
Var. approviata hort. 
Leaf 4 or 5 inches long and about 3 inch wide, ovate-lanceolate, carinate, apex acutely tridenticulate, 
bright green, narrowing below into a slender grooved petiole, sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle 3 or 4 inches long, with two sheathing bracts, terete, slender, ascending from within a sheath 
at the base of the petiole, pale green ; flowering bract 4 inch long, carinate, apiculate, 3-nerved, with a 
rudimentary bud within at the base, brownish-green. 
Ovary } inch long, with six grooves, pale green. 
Sepals cohering for about % inch, forming a wide gibbous tube, greenish-white, spotted with rose- 
purple ; free portion triangular-ovate for about 4 inch, 3-nerved, the nerves strongly carinate on the outer 
surface, white, covered on the inner surface with minute velvety hairs, and terminating in slender greenish- 
yellow tails ? inch long. 
Petals about } inch long, oblong, apiculate, curved, broadly keeled and angled on the anterior margin, 
the inner surface viscid beneath the angle of the keel, pale transparent ivory-yellow. 
Lip about 3 inch long, fleshy and deeply grooved at the base, united to the curved foot of the column 
by a very flexible hinge, pandurate, white, with rose-purple spots near the base, and two longitudinal 
purple keels, apex much reflexed, terminating in a point, bright orange. 
Column about } inch long, broadly winged, whitish-green, spotted on the foot with rose-purple, apex 
minutely denticulate. 
MASDEVALLIA IONOCHARIS was discovered in 1874 by Davis while collecting 
in Peru for Mr. Veitch, who states the locality to be “the Andean valley of 
Sandia, in the province of Caravaya,” at an elevation of 9,000 to 10,000 feet. 
A variety of this species exists in more than one collection under the name of 
Masdevallia approviata, the flowers of which are whiter, more slender, and less spotted ; 
the column also is entirely white and the lip more brightly marked with rose-purple. 
The leaf is darker green, and the denticulation of the apex is sharper than in the type. 
I can obtain no information as to the history of this variety, except that it was sold at 
Stevens’ Rooms by Messrs. Protheroe and Morris in February 1887 under the above 
name, which does not appear to have ever been published or attached to any distinct 
species. The plant is probably merely a local variety of WZ. ionocharis. 
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 ;— 
3, lip ;—3a, apex of lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ; all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of lip. 
natural size. 
