14 MASDEYALLIA. 



seen in orcMd collections. Restrepia Lansbergii (Rclib.), witli wliicli 

 B. xanthophthahna lias been confounded^ is evidently a different 

 plant* that was discovered by Wagener in 1850, in Caracas, 

 and introduced by liiin into European gardens. 



MASDEVALLIA, 



Ruiz et Pav. Fl. Peru et Chili, Prod. 122, t. 27 (1794). Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant III. p. 

 492 (1883). 



In Masdevallia we have a genus of plants as remarkable for the 

 uniformity of tlieir vegetation as for the diversity of form and 

 colour displayed in their flowers. Striking as are the grotesque 

 shapes assumed by the flowers of some of the species, perhaps still 

 more so is the extraordinary brilliancy of the colours of others, 

 while in strong contrast to these, there are other species whose 

 flowers are of so homely a hue as to fail altogether to attract the 

 favour of the greater number of orchid cultivators. 



The structure of the flowers of Masdevallia presents a curious 

 anomaly when compared with that of the flowers of many of the 

 genera that find favour with amateurs, such as Cattleya, Dendrobium, 

 many Odontoglots and Oncids, etc., in which the lip is often 

 enormously developed, apparently at tlie expense of the other floral 

 segments, and it is also the most richly -coloured of all the segments. 

 In Masdevallia, on the contrary, the lower whorl of floral segments — 

 the sepals, as they are conventionally called — are the most developed 

 and the most richly-coloured parts of the flower, this development 

 being, no doubt, at the expense of the petals and lip, which are 

 reduced to minute organs! that have but an insignificant influence 

 on the aspect of the flower, and which are not infrequently quite 

 concealed within the tube formed by the cohesion of the sepals at 

 their basal end. Another peculiarity, although not confined to this 

 genus, is seen in the sudden contraction of the sepals into long 

 filiform tails, which are often of a colour difierent from the basal 

 or tubular portion, and which contribute much to the bizarre 

 appearance of the flowers. 



* See Xen. Orch. I. p. 170, t. 60. 



f In Masdevallia Chimccra, M. C'hestertonii and most other saccolabiate species, the lip is 

 moderately large in comparison with the size of the entire flower, while in 31. Gargantua, 

 M. j^lcdyglosaa, M. vclifcra, and other coriaceous species it is quite a conspicuous organ, but 

 always less than the sepals. 



