id 



MA8DEVALL1A. 



tail an inch long : lateral sepals connate to three-fourths of their 

 length, ovate-oblong, deep red-brown with yellowish veins ; tails orange- 

 yellow ; petals, lip and column minute and concealed within the tube ; 

 the petals and lip oblong, red-brown, the column white. 



Masdevallia demissa, Rchb. in Card. Chron. II. s. 3. (1817), p 9. 

 A species of dwarf habit, with red-brown and yellow flowers, 

 resembling on superficial glance a diminished Masdevallia corniculata, 

 but the hooded bract of which is replaced in this species by a 

 small loose membraneous one, a character which removes it from 

 the sub -section GucuUatce. It was recently imported from Costa 

 Rica by Messrs. Shuttleworth and Carder. We are indebted to 

 Mr. Sydney Courtauld, of Becking Place, Braintree, for materials 

 for description. 



M. elephanticeps. 



Leaves narrowly spatliulate-cuneate, approaching linear-oblong, 6 — 10 

 inches long, very leathery. Scapes stoutish, shorter than the leaves, 

 dotted with dull purple, Avith 2 — 3 small sheathing bracts, one- 

 flowered Flowers large for the genus, horizontal or deflexed ; perianth 

 tube broadly cylindric, yellowish above, dull purple beneath ; upper sepal 

 triangular, elongated, keeled above, gradually contracted into a long 

 coriaceous yellowish tail, 2 — 3 inches long ; latei'al sepals reddish purple 

 on the inner side, dull jjurple beneath, oblong, connate to nearly the 

 middle and contracted into yellowish tails ; petals oblong, acute ; lip 

 ligulate or oblong, papillose above. 



IMasdevallia elephanticeps, Rchb. Xcn. OrcJi I. p. 6, t. 3 (1854). Id. p. 194, 

 t. 74 (pachy.sepala). Id. in Bonpl. II. p. 116 (1854). Van Houtte's Fl. des Serres, 

 X. t. 997 (copied from Xen. Orch.). 



This remarkable specie.s was discovered by Warscewicz, in 1850 — 



51, on the eastern Cordillera of New Granada, between Ocafia 



and Pamplona, at 6,500 — 10,000 feet elevation, and where many 



years afterwards it was gathered by Bowman, Briickmiiller, and 



Shuttleworth. It has recently been introduced by more than one 



horticultural firm, and is now in cultivation in several collections. 



The variety fachyseioala, which does not appear to be yet in 



cultivation, was gathered by Schlim, near Ocaila. The fanciful 



resemblance of the flower to an elephant's head and trunk, when 



viewed from above, suggested the specific name. 



M. Ephippium. 



Leaves narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 5 — 7 inches long, attenuated below 

 into a channelled foot-stalk, half as long as the blade. Scapes 



