MASDEVALLIA TRIARISTELLA Rchb. f. 
Maspevatiia trrarisren.a Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1876, pt. IL, pp. 226 and 559, fig. 108 ; Bot. Mag. 
t. 6268 (1876) ; Veitch Manual Orch., pt. V. (1889), p. 66. 
M. tridactylites Rehb. f. Gard. Chron. 1883, pt. I, p. 784; Veitch Manual Orch., pt. V. (1889), p. 66. 
Leaf about 2 inches long, growing in dense tufts, linear, channelled, very coriaceous, apex rounded 
and tridenticulate, green tinged with purple, narrowing below into a slender grooved petiole, sheathed at 
the base. 
Peduncle 3 or 4 inches long, slender and wiry, ascending from within a sheath at the base of the 
petiole, in some specimens rough with minute warts, with two closely-sheathing bracts, producing two or 
three flowers in succession, dull brownish-green ; flowering bract minute, ovate, apiculate, sheathing 
below, pale green. 
Ovary 4 inch long, with six crenate wings, pale green tinged with red. 
78 toe) Ss, | 5 5 
Sepals : dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for a little more than % inch, free portion ovate, 
cucullate, 3-nerved, the central nerve carinate on the outer surface, terminating in a slender club-shaped 
yellow tail ; lateral sepals cohering for their entire length, more than 2 inch, linear, boat-shaped, 3-nerved, 
each sepal diverging into a slender club-shaped yellow tail ; all the sepals yellow, veined and tinged 
with red. 
Petals about 4 inch long, linear-oblong, tridentate, yellow, with a broad red central streak. 
Lip longer than the petals, deeply bi-lobed at the base, and united by a flexible hinge to the foot of 
the column, tongue-shaped, curved, with two obscure longitudinal keels, red, the margin and apex 
darker red. 
Column club-shaped, narrowly winged, apex denticulate, yellow and red. 
M ASPEVALLIA TRIARISTELLA was discovered in Costa Rica in 1875, by 
Endres, who sent plants to Messrs. Veitch. Professor Reichenbach founded 
from it a new section, “ Triaristelle,” of which it was the first species, and which now 
includes three or four more recently discovered plants. 
M. tridactylites, named and described by Reichenbach in 1888, is identical with 
MM. triaristella. The species is a variable one, sometimes developing flower-stems five 
or six inches in length, with long, slender, dull-red flowers, The leaves apparently do 
not vary much in length, but in the long-stalked plants they are more slender. The 
small rough warts upon the flower-stems are not a constant feature. I have seen plants 
with no sign of them, and others in which they were very noticeable, although the 
leaves and flowers of all the plants were alike in colour and size. 
Consul Lehmann informs me that IZ. triaristella grows in great abundance on the 
mountains of San Cristobal and near the sources of the river Reventazon, near Cartago, 
Costa Rica, at an elevation of 1,600 to 2,000 metres (5,200 to 6,500 feet)—in fact, in 
nearly the same locality as MW. Reichenbachiana. 
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 ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ;—3, apex and section of leaf ; all enlarged. 
