Masprvatrra rosea Lindl. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. XV. (1845), p. 257; Bonplandia II. (1854), 
p. 116; Walp. Ann. VI. (1861), p. 192; Belg. Hort. XXIII. (1873), p. 360; Otia Bot. Hamb. 
(1878), p. 14; Gard. Chron. 1880, pt. I, pp. 554, 648, 680 and 681, figs. 117 and 118; 1881, 
pt. IL, p. 337, fig. 63; 1882, pt. L, pp: 628 and 644, fig. 101 ; Orchidophile (Godefroy) 1882, 
p- 897; 1886, p. 235. 
Leaf 5 or 6 inches long and about 1 inch wide, oblong-lanceolate, carinate, acutely tridenticulate, 
bright green, narrowing below into a slender grooved petiole, closely sheathed at the base. 
Peduncle 5 or 6 inches long, very slender, terete, erect, pale green, with one or two sheathing bracts ; 
flowering bract 2 inch long, sheathing, apiculate, brownish. 
Ovary about 4 inch long, triangular, with rounded angles, light green, sometimes brown or blackish. 
Sepals: dorsal sepal united to the lateral sepals for about 1} inch, forming a narrow tube, bright red 
and shining on the outer surface and shaded with rose-lilac, free portion triangular for 4 inch, rose-lilac, 
tapering into a very slender tail 1 or 1j, inch long, bright red ; lateral sepals cohering for 13 inch, free 
portions oblong for about 1 inch, bright rose-lilac veined with dark rose, terminating in slender bright 
red tails 3 or 4 inch long. 
Petals+;’; inch long, ligulate, angled on both margins near the base, apex tridenticulate, very pale yellow. 
Lip ,* inch long, pandurate, pale yellow and slightly hairy at the base, with two pink longitudinal 
keels, apex dark reddish-purple, covered with stiff hairs, 
Column nearly } inch long, narrowly winged, apex denticulate, white. 
MASDEVALLIA ROSEA was discovered in 1842 or 1843, by Theodore Hartweg, 
near Loja in Ecuador, and from dried specimens collected by him it was first 
named and described by Dr. Lindley in 1845. No importation of living plants was 
effected until 1880, when Consul Lehmann succeeded in bringing home a quantity. In 
1882, the first living flowers seen in Europe were produced from these plants distributed 
among various private collections of Orchids. The flower varies slightly in size and in 
brilliancy of colour, and the plant drawn for the accompanying plate was considered by 
Professor Reichenbach to be a rather narrow and dark-flowered variety. The stem is 
usually one-flowered, although in a wild state stems bearing two and even three flowers 
have been met with, and have also occasionally appeared in cultivated plants. 
Consul Lehmann sends me the following note : 
Masdevallia rosea grows on the Eastern Andés from the southern part of Colombia to 
the south of Ecuador at an elevation of 2,800 to 3,200 metres (9,100 to 10,400 feet). In 
1877 I met with it on the Volcano Tunguragua, and subsequently in the Eastern Andes 
of Cuenca and Loja, in the south of Ecuador. It grows on trees in dense and damp 
woods. The annual mean temperature of the region ranges between 10° and 12°:5 
Centigrade (50° to 54° Fahrenheit). 
The only plants existing in Europe originate from an importation of mine made in 
1880, from the Andes of Pasto in Colombia. In its natural habitat the plant flowers in 
October and November, and also in June, J uly and August. 
F. C. Lenmany. 
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 ;— 
3, lip ;—4, column ;—4a, apex of column ; ail enlarged ;—5, apex and section of leaf, natural size. 
