MASDEVALLU. 71 



M. Vespertilio. 



Leaves narrowly oblanceolate, 4 — 6 inches long. Scapes shorter than 

 the leaves, pendulous, one-flowered. Flowers patent, triangular in outline, 

 1 — 11 inches across vertically exclusive of the tails, pale yellow 

 spotted with brown-purple ; upper sepal ovate-oblong, acnminate, 

 contracted into a slender tail Ik inches long; lateral connate sepals 

 sub-quadrate, prolonged into tails like that of the upper one ; petals 

 oblong, reflexed at the tip, white blotched with yellowish brown and 

 with a brown papillose blotch on the inner side at the apex ; lip 

 with a fleshy grooved claw in which is a broad, longitudinal cleft on 

 the upper side, and with a broad, transverse, shell-like blade, without 

 radiating keels. Column bent, terete above. 



Masdevallia Vespertilio, Rchb. in Bot. Zeit. 1873, p. 390. Id. in Gard. Chron. 

 VII. (1877), p. 272. Id. XIII. (1880), p. 712. 



One of the saccolabiate Masdevallias that has been gathered by 

 various collectors in the valley of the Cauca^ New Grauada^ (probably 

 in the P>ontino district), but not introduced till 1877 ; it is still 

 rare in British gardens. 



M. Wageneriana. 



A dwarf, tufted plant. Leaves spathulate, leathery, about 2 inches 

 long. Scapes as long as the leaves, one-flowered. Flowers light bulf- 

 yellow with numerous minute red dots sprinkled over the sepals, and 

 some crimson lines at their base ; sepals broadly oval-oblong, narrowing 

 very suddenly to slender yellow tails 2 inches long, sharply bent backwards 

 from the base, the upper one concave on the inner side, keeled 

 behind, the lateral tAvo connate to beyond the middle ; petals hatchet- 

 shaped, bidentate at apex ; lip rhomboidal with reflexed, toothed 

 margin, whitish spotted with red-brown, as is the short semi- terete 

 column. 



Masdevallia Wageneriana, Lindl. in Paxt. Fl. Gard. III. p. 74 (1853). Bot. Mag. 

 t. 4921. Rchb. A'en. Orch. I. p. 199, t. 75. 



A lovely little plaut^ discovered in 1849 near the German colony 

 of Tovar in the Venezuelian province of Caracas. It was gathered 

 in the following year by Wagener at Carobobo^* at 6_,000 feet 

 elevation, and sent by him to M. Linden, in whose horticultural 

 establishment at Brussels it flowered for the first time in Europe 

 in 1851. 



* Fide Rchb. Xeu. Ort-li. I. loc. cit. supra, but this name is not found on any map to 

 which we have access. 



