MASPEVALLIA. 17 



Thirty years later Reichenbacli enumerated tliirty-six species in Walpers 

 Annales Systemaficce, but from that time forwards au almost uninter- 

 rupted stream of new species was poured into Europe, either as living 

 plants or as dried specimens, so that Mr. Bentham, when dealing with 

 Masdevallia for the Genera Planfarum, estimated the number at over 

 100 ; * and altliough some of the Eeichenl)achian species have to be 

 reduced to varieties of previously known types, the number 125 cannot 

 be regarded as an exaggerated estimate at the present time. Of these 

 probably upwards of eighty have been, and may still be in cultivation 

 in botanic gardens and in private collections ; l^ut many of them 

 possess so little interest for amateurs in general, that most of such are 

 purposely omitted in the synopsis that follows. 



No sectional divisions of the genus were proposed by Mr. Bentham, 

 the extreme difficulty of determining sectional characters from dried 

 specimens alone, especially when the series is imperfect, being almost 

 insuperable. Scattered through his numerous notes and descriptions of 

 species published in the Gardeners' Chronicle and elsewhere, Reichenbach 

 has indicated various sectional divisions, but nowhere do we find them 

 brought together into a systematic form. That Masdevallia is not a 

 mere aggregation of species is manifest enough from a comparison of such 

 well-known species as M. Veitchiana, M. Rnchenhachiana, M. Gldtncera, 

 M. Usfrache, M. polystida, M. triaristella, etc., etc , hence the Avant of 

 a scientific classification of the included species has long been felt, both 

 by botanists and by horticulturists. As a step in that direction we 

 have brought together those Reichenbachian sections that include most 

 of the species hereafter described, and have indicated the characters upon 

 which they have been framed,! but, as stated above, other species are 

 cultivated in a few collections, and many more have been described from 

 dried specimens, while others again are but still very imperfectly known. 

 To draw up sectional characters for the whole of the genus is therefore 

 not here intended, as the necessary material for it is not yet available. 



I. EuMASDEVALLiA. Lip generally ligulate, or linear-oblong, usually 

 nearly flat, more or less fleshy ; petals flat, often somewhat oblique ; sepals 

 united below into a tube which is generally but not always longer than 

 broad, the sepaline tails variable in length, breadth, colour, &c. 



A very large section, comprising the great bulk of tlie genus and not easily 

 confounded with the remaining sections. It admits of sub-division into 



* With the remark thai "plures tamen hortuhinis potius quam botauicis distiuctie, " 

 which later examination has amply confirmed. 



t In this we ha.ve been assisted by Mr. K. A. Rolfe, of the Kew Herbarium, to whom we 

 tender our best acknowledgments. Mr. Rolfe kindly placed his notes on this subject at our 

 disposal, and at his suggestion we have reduced several of the Reichenbachian sections to 

 sub-sections of Eumasdevallia. We have also to e.\;])ress our indebtedness to Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence, Bart., M. P., Mr Sydney Courtauld, Capt. Hincks, Mr. Charles Winn, and Mr. F. \V. 

 Moore, of Glasnevin, for materials that have enabled us to include in the synopsis that 

 follows several rare and little known species which, without such help, must have been 

 unavoidably omitted or but imperfedy described, 



