54 MASDBVALLIA. 



below ; upper sepal triangular, gradually contracted into a linear tail, 

 yellow on the inside, with three vinous purple streaks on the paler 

 dilated basal portion ; lateral sepals connate to nearly the middle, similar 

 but more acute, the tails parallel, vinous red, covered with innumerable 

 minute blackish purple papillse on the inner side ; tails yellowish towards 

 the tip ; petals oblong, acute, white, with a purple mid-line ; lip oblong, 

 blackish purple, hairy above. Column greenish white, with blackish 

 purple edges. 



Masdevallia Mooreana, Echb. in Gard. Chron. XXI. (1884), p. 408. Id. II. s. 3 

 (1887), p. 777. Bot. Mag. t. 7015. 



A curious Masdevallia, allied to M. eJephantice'ps and M. Gargantua, 

 so near indeed to the last named tliat it may prove to be only a 

 variety of it, or even identical ; its origin does not appear to liave 

 been recorded. It is named in compliment to Mr. F. W. Moore, of 

 tbe Eoyal Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, near Dublin. It is in cul- 

 tivation in several collections under the name of M. melanoxav tha, 

 which, according to the description in the Gardeners' Chronicle, IV. 

 (1875), p. 580, must be a different species. 



M. muscosa. 



Leaves elli})tic-oblong, 2 inches long, minutely tridentate at the tip 



narrowed beloAv into a slender channelled foot-stalk shorter than the 



blade, very leathery, deep green above, stained with purple beneath. 



Scapes slender, 6 — 7 inches long, one-flowered, pale green, clothed with 



hispid moss-like hairs up to the small appressed bract just below the 



ovary, then glabrous to the base of the ovary, which is verrucosa and 



bristly and bent horizontally. Flowers | inch in diameter ; perianth 



tube short, compressed, gibbous below ; sepals narrowly triangular with 



three veins, prolonged into slender tails an inch long, pale buflf-yellow ; 



petals linear, longer than the column, their thickened apices meeting 



above it ; lip clawed, the claw adnate to the bent foot of the column, 



the blade yellow, maroon at the apical edge, triangular, Avith the 



broad side at the apex, and Avith a yellow ridge from the base to the 



middle. 



Masdevallia inuscosa, Echb. in Gard. Chron. III. (1875), p. 460. Id. I. s. 3. (1887), 

 p. 836. 



Of the many remarkable species included in Masdevallia, the 



flowers of some are distinguished by their brilliant colours, others 



by their grotesque form, and others again by their microscopic 



beauty, but Masdevallia muscosa stands apart from all these hy 



reason of a peculiarity not yet observed in any other Masdevallia, 



although known to exist in two or three species belonging to other 



genera, viz., that of irritability or sensitiveness in the labellum, so 



