16 



MASDKVATJ.IA. 



The stems are short, erect, invested with meinljraneous sheaths, and 

 nionoj)hyll()Us. The leaves vary but Httle in form, but considerably in 

 size in the different species. They are usually lanceolate, oblanceolate, 

 or elliptic, attenuated below into channelled foot-stalks, and very 

 leathery in texture. The peduncles, which spring fioni the base of 

 the foot-stalk, are sometimes clothed with a scarious sheath, or are 

 distinctly jointed with a small bract at each joint, and at the base 

 of the ovary, often one-flowered, but sometimes 2 — 5 flow^ered, or 

 terminating in a many-flowered raceme. 



/^=^. 



Capsules of Masdevallia— (1) Viilchiana. (2) maculata. (3) Chinitera. 



The genus Masdevallia was dedicated to Joseph Masdeval, a 

 Spanish physician and botanist of the eighteenth century, by Euiz 

 and Pavon, two botanists of the same nationality, who were sent 

 out to Peru by the Spanish Government in 1777 to investigate the 

 Cinchona forests of that country; and who, during their stay in 

 South America, compiled a Flora of Peru and Chili. The type 

 species is Peruvian, and was named by them Masdevallia unijlora, 

 a plant that has not been gathered by any modern collector, but 

 which may be still lurking in the remote valley high up on the 

 Andes, where first discovered ; its habitat, according to the founders 

 of the genus, is " in rocky places near Huassahuassi,^^ wherever that 

 may be. 



There is scarcely a genus belonging to the Orchideae that has been 

 more rapidly extended of late years, through the discoveries of 

 botanical travellers, than Masdevallia. Masdevallia uniflora was the 

 only species known to its founders, and when, in 1832, Dr. Lindley 

 published the third part of his Genera and Species of Orchidaceous 

 Pla.nts, only two more were known to him, M. caudata and M. infracta. 



