46 :\rAsr>RVALTJA. 



or protrude over the rim of the pot or between the rods of the 

 basket in which it is cultivated ; they are somewhat variable in size 

 and colour, particularly in the spotting on the sepals. Masdevallia 

 Houftemia occurs on the western Cordillera of New Granada, in the 

 neighboui'hood of Frontino, where its vertical range is 4,500 — 6,000 

 feet elevation ; it grows chiefly in small tufts on low trees and 

 shrubs, sometimes on the trunks, but more frequently towards the 

 extremities of the branches ; it was first detected by Eoezl, and 

 shortly afterwards by Wallis, through whom it was introduced. It is 

 dedicated to the late Louis Van Houtte, the well-known horticulturist 

 of Ghent. 



M. ignea. 



Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, 3 — 4 inches long, narrowed below into a 

 channelled petiole, half as long as the blade. Scapes slender, 12 — 15 

 or more inches long, one-flowered. Flowers 1| — 2| inches across verti- 

 cally, somewhat variable in colour, usually bright cinnabar-red toned 

 with crimson ; perianth tube bent, gibbous l^elow ; i;pper sepal with a 

 narrow triangular base, prolonged at the apex into a linear tail that 

 is bent downwards into the sinus between the two lateral se])als, which 

 are connate to more than half their length, elliptic-oblong, pointed, 

 three-nerved, the free portions more or less divergent ; petals linear- 

 oblong, auricled below, white, with a purple mid-line ; lip similar, 

 recurved at the apex where there is an orange-red stain, 



Masdevallia ignea, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 1871, p. 1482. Bot. Mag. t. 5962. 

 Fl. Mag. u. s. t. 15. Fl. and Pom. 1873, p. 169. Ilhis. liort. n. s. t. 333. 

 Williams' Orch. Alb. II. t. 62. Godefroy's Orcliidophile, 1885, p. 367. JI. coccinea, 

 Kegel's Gartcnfl. 1876, t. 170, not Lindl. 



var. — Massangeana. 



Flowers larger than the commoner form.s, with the lateral sepals 

 longer, bright cinnabar-red ; perianth tube yellow, 

 il. ignea Massangeana, Williams' Orch. Alb. VI. t. 273. 



Sub-vars. (distinguished by colour only). — aurantiaca, light orange-red ; M. 

 Boddaert's (Ulus. horf. 1880, t. 357), crimson-scarlet, spotted with jjale 

 yellow; citrina, light orange-yellow; Mr. MarxliaU's (Gard. Chron. 1872, 

 p. 351), yeUow, toned with cinnabar-red ; Mr. Hoharfs (Gard. Chron. 

 XV. (1881), p. 136), orange-yellow, faintly tinted with mauve-purple. 

 Introduced by Messrs. Low and Co., in 1870, from the eastern 

 Cordillera of New Granada, on which it spreads from Ocana south- 

 wards as far as Rosa, with a vertical range of 8,500 — 11,000 feet 

 elevation. In such an extensive range M'ludevaUia igiica affects a 



