MASDEVALLIA. 19 



the sepals, but inserted below their apex on the lateral margin ; peduncles 

 slender, leaves small and narrow. A very natural group of exceptional 

 interest, consisting of dwarf -tufted plants, bearing minute gem-like flowers 

 The best known species in this section are M. gemmata, triaristella 

 and TridactijUtes. 



IV. There is another section of the genus, of which M. siverticefolia 

 and M. gihherosa are typical examples, but neither these nor the other 

 included species known to us, with two or three exceptions, are of 

 sufficient horticultural interest to require description in the following- 

 pages ; the sectional characters are therefore omitted. One peculiarity 

 possessed by this section may, however, be noticed, viz., that the flowers 

 are inverted, the labellum and the lateral sepals are superior, and the 

 dorsal sepal underneath them. 

 Geographical distrihnfion. — The Masdevallias are alpine plants, 

 which have their home on the mountains of tropical America, 

 chiefly on that portion of the Andes that extends from Peru to the 

 Isthmus of Panama, and their continuation through central America 

 into the Mexican territory. One species has been introduced from 

 the Organ Mountains, near Rio de Janeiro, and a few others are 

 reported from the mountains of Brazil, two or three from the Eoraima 

 in British Guiana, and others from the coast range of Venezuela ; 

 but by far the greater number inhabit the Cordilleras on the west 

 side of the continent. They first appear on the Peruvian Andes at 

 about the fifteenth parallel of south latitude, from whence they are 

 somewhat sparingly distributed along the mountains northwards for 

 many hundreds of miles, sometimes occurring within the Odontoglossum 

 zone, but usually at a higher elevation, and above the limits of 

 the forest. Nortb of the equator, from where the great chain of the 

 Andes divides into three distinct branches or Cordilleras, as they 

 are called, the Masdevallias follow chiefly the central one, gradually 

 increasing in numbers till the fifth parallel is reached, where they 

 appear to attain their greatest development — more than twenty-five 

 species having been observed within a small compass in the vicinity 

 of Sonson.* Northwards from Medelin they diminish rapidly in 

 numbers on the central Cordillera ; but on the eastern range from 

 Sogamosa to Ocaiia, some of the most brilliant-flowered species of 

 the sub-section Goccinece are abundant, and spread for miles over the 

 higher slopes above the forest. Along the western Cordillera, 



* The late M. Koezl in Godefroy's Orckidopkile, June, 1883, p. 643. 



