MASDEVALLIA TRIANGULARIS Lindl. 
MaspEvAria TrrANGULARIS Lindl. Orch. Lind. (1846) p. 5; Rehb. f. Bonplandia II. (1854), p. 23 
(nomen tantum) ; Walp. Ann. VI. (1861), p. 188; Belg. Hort. 1873, p. 360 ; Gard. Chron. 1881, 
pt. IL, p. 409; 1882, pt. I., p. 44; Orchidophile (Godefroy) vol. I. (1881-3), p- 193; Veitch 
Manual Orch. pt. V. (1889), p. 65. 
Leaf 5 or 6 inches long, and about 1 inch broad, oblanceolate, carinate, sharply tridenticulate, bright 
green, narrowing below into a slender, grooved, blackish petiole with blackish membranous sheaths at the 
base. 
Peduncle 4 or 5 inches long, terete, slender, ascending from a joint near the base of the petiole, bright 
green, with a few minute black dots and one or two blackish bracts ; flowering bract 2 inch long, oblong- 
ovate, carinate, apiculate, sheathing below, dull green or blackish. 
Ovary 3 inch long, slender, with six rounded angles, very pale green dotted with black. 
Sepals all cohering for about 3 inch; dorsal sepal triangular-ovate for about 3 inch, slightly cucullate, 
3-nerved, carinate at the back ; lateral sepals triangular-ovate for about inch, 3-nerved ; all ochre-yellow, 
with numerous small transverse purple spots, and terminating in slender dark purple tails, about 2 inches 
long. 
Petals scarcely {inch long, oblong, curved, tridenticulate, anterior margin strongly keeled, and termi- 
nating in a long curving angle, white. 
Lip nearly 4 inch long, oblong-pandurate or oblong-triangular, with two obscure longitudinal keels, 
grooved and fleshy at the base and united to the curved foot of the column by a flexible hinge, whitish, 
with small pink and crimson spots, apex narrow, much reflexed, crimson-purple, covered with stiff hairs. 
Column 4 inch long, white or very pale yellow, narrowly winged with crimson, apex slightly dentate. 
VIASPEVALLIA TRIANGULARIS was discovered by Linden in June, 1842, erow- 
ing upon trees on the Quebrada of Murmuquena, near Bailadores in the Province 
of Merida, Venezuela, at an altitude of 4,800 feet in a temperature of 68° Fahrenheit. 
It was also found near Caracas by Wagener and in Tovar by Moritz. The first living 
plants were imported in 1881 by Mr. F. Sander, of St. Albans, and the richly-coloured 
form represented in the accompanying Plate is probably a plant from his original 
“importation, my first drawing of the species having been made in 1883, at Newbattle 
Abbey. This variety appears to be rare, for the flowers of most plants now in cultivation 
are more green than yellow, only slightly spotted, and with greenish-purple tails. 
Consul Lehmann sends the following note : 
The habitat of WZ. triangularis is in the central mountains of Venezuela, from the Department of 
Carabobo to Merida, at an elevation of 1,800 to 2,300 métres (5,850 to 7,475 feet). It grows on the trunks 
of trees in damp shady woods, in a mean temperature of 15° to 18° Centigrade (about 59° to 65° Fahrenheit). 
SS z 
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 from another specimen ;—3, lip ;—8a, lip from another specimen ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of 
column, all enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, natural size. 
