MASDEVALLIA. 51 



M. macrura. 



A robust plant. Stems about 6 inclies high. Leaves elliptic-oblong, 



10 — 12 inches long, and 2^—3 inches broad, very leathery. Scapes 



as long as the leaves, one-flowered, the ovary and base of perianth 



tube sheathed by a Avhitish membraneous keeled bract. Flowers anion" 



the largest in the genus; perianth tube short, cylindric, ribbed, duU 



tawny yellow shaded with brown externally as are the free portions 



of the sepals, on the inner side both sepals and tube tawny yellow 



studded with numerous blackish purple warts ; tails paler and without 



warts ; free portion of upper sepal lanceolate, acuminate, prolonged 



into a stoutish tail, 4 — 5 inches long ; lateral sepals connate to fully 



one inch beyond the tube, and then tapering into tails as long as 



the xipper one ; petals and lip oblong, pale tawny yellow, the lip with 



a papillose, reflexed tip, and spotted with purple below. 



Masdevallia macrura, Echb. in Gard. Chron. I. (1874), p. 240 and VII. (1877), 

 p. 12, icon. xyl. Id. in Linnssa, XLI. p. 11. 



Discovered by Roezl in 1871, near Sonson^ growing on the moss- 

 covered blocks of granite that are scattered over the ground around 

 the town,* and afterwards found by Patin and other collectors, but 

 not introduced till 1876^ when it was collected by Shuttleworth 

 between Frias and Libano, in the province of Tolima, New Granada, 

 and sent by him to Mr. Bull, in whose horticultural establishment 

 at Chelsea it flowered for the first time in this country early in the 

 following year. The plant is a giant among Masdevallias, the leaves 

 being among the largest in the genus yet known; the flower, 

 which is proportionately large, is an object of curiosity rather than 

 admiration. The specific name, from /naKpoc^ (makros), 'Mong,'' and 

 ovpa (ouraj, " a tail," refers to the long sepaline tails. 



M. maculata. 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, 4 — 5 inches long. Scapes a little longer 

 than the leaves, few-flowered, three-angled up to within about 

 2 inches of the short deflexed ovary, the remainder slender, terete, 

 sheathed by two whitish, papery, opposite bracts above the trigonal part, 

 and by two smaller, compressed, acute green ones below the ovary. 

 Perianth tube short, with a prominent rib above, orange-yellow ; free 

 portion of upper sepal triangular, gradually contracted into a stoutish 

 yellow tail 3 inches long ; lateral sepals connate to below the middle, 



* Godefroy's Orcliidophile, 1883, p. 643. That Eoezl was the first discoverer of Masde- 

 vallia Macrura is emphatically affirmed by Rt^ichenbach in the Gardeners' Chronicle, loc. 

 cit. supra. The statement in that journal, III. s. 3. (1888), p. 12, copied from Lindcnia, 

 that Wallis was the discoverer, and Linden the introducer, must therefore be received with 

 reserve, 



U. OF ILL LIB. 



