MASDEVALLIA, 25 



cated by the late Professor Eeichenbach to his friend Hermann 

 Wagener, by latinising the Christian name. It appears to have been 

 first introduced into European gardens by Messrs. Sander and Co., of 

 St. Albans, in 1882. 



M. astuta. 



Leaves linear-oblanceolate, acute, coiuplicate at base, 8 — 10 inches 

 long. Scapes longer than the leaves, first decumbent, then ascending, 

 3 — 5 or more flowered, the flowers developed in acropetalous order, that 

 is, successively along the rachis from pedicels springing from the base 

 of the ovary of the next older. Sepals triangular, keeled behind, connate 

 at the base to about one-third of their length, and forming a very 

 short campanulate tube, pubescent on the inner side, cream-white 

 densely spotted with red ; tails 2| inches long, reddish purple, paler 

 towards th(; tip ; petals linear-oblong, with a hairy wart at the reflexed 

 tip, white stained with purple ; lip with a long bent claw that is fleshy 

 upwards, and has a deep incision in the upper side ; blade saccate with 

 toothed margin and three raised longitudinal plates within, white with 

 a slight reddish tint. Column beaked. 



Masdevallia astuta, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. XXVI. (1886), p. 584. 

 A recent addition to the saccolabiate section, having for its nearest 

 allies Masdevallia ErythrocJicete and M. Gashlliana, connecting these 

 with M. Ghimcera. Tt svas discovered by Carder, in Costa Rica, 

 and introduced by Messrs. Shuttleworth and Carder, of the Park 

 Road Nursery, Clapham, in 1886. As a species it is one of the 

 handsomest of the group to which it belongs. 



M. Barlseana. 



Plant dwarf and tufted, with elliptic-lanceolate leaves 4 inches long 

 including petiole. Scapes as long again as the leaves, slender, erect, 

 with two appressed membraneous bracts, one-flowered. Perianth tube 

 narrow, slightly bent, prominently keeled and coral-red above, pinkish 

 beneath ; free portion of upper sepal small, sub-quadrate, orange-yellow 

 with a median and marginal red lines, and contracted to a filiform red 

 tail 1| inches long ; the lateral two elliptic-oblong, connate to two-thirds 

 of their length, and terminating in long points Avhich cross each other, 

 bright carmine shaded with scarlet and with three sunk crimson lines ; 

 petals and lip minute, oblong, white, the latter with a piu'ple spot at 

 the tip. 



Masdevallia Barl?eana, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. V. (1876), p. 170. 



A species with medium-sized but brilliantly coloured flowers, 

 allied to Masdevallia amahilis, from which it may be distinguished by 

 the two lateral sepals being more divergent, by the broader and 



