MASDEVALLIA MACRURA. 
[Puate 431.] 
Native of the Province of Tolima, U.S. Colombia. 
Terrestrial. A strong-growing and rébust-habited plant, quite destitute of pseudo- 
bulbs, having in their place slender stems, which in the young state are enclosed 
in large sheaths; the stems attain a height of some five or six inches, each bearing 
a single, large, oblong-obtuse leaf, emarginate at the apex, thick and leathery in 
texture, from nine inches to a foot in length, and from two to three inches in 
breadth. Scape erect, from nine inches to a foot long, single-flowered. Flowers 
large, in fact being the largest species known in the CvucuLuata section, to which 
M. macrura belongs. The sepaline tube is short and ribbed, dull brownish yellow 
externally, the interior of the tube and sepals being bright reddish brown or tawny 
yellow, marked with numerous very deep purplish warty spots and dots; sepals 
prolonged into stout tails some six inches in length, yellow; petals small,. oblong, 
yellowish brown; Jip also oblong, reflexed at the tip, tawny yellow dotted with 
purple. ’ 
MAspDEVALLIA MACRURA, Reichenbach fil, in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1874, Ns., i, 
p. 240. Jd. vii, p. 12. Lindenia, iii., t. 113. Veitch’s Manual of Orchidaceous 
Plants, Part v., p. 51. Linnea, xii. p- ll. Williams’ Orchid-Grower’s Manual, 
6th ed., p. 395. | 
The credit of first discovering this giant amongst the Masdevallias is due to the 
veteran traveller and explorer in South America, M. Roezl, who is said to have 
found it growing upon the ground in rocky places only slightly covered with moss; 
none of Roezl’s plants, however, came to this country alive. After this M. Patin, 
then collecting for us in New Grenada, sent it home on_ several occasions, 
but the plants always arrived in a dead or dying condition. To Mr. Shuttleworth, 
when collecting for Mr. Wm. Bull, of Chelsea, in 1876, we are indebted for 
the successful introduction of the plant in a living state to English gardens, and it 
flowered in Mr. Bull’s establishment in the course of the following year. The 
plant here depicted was drawn by our artist in the garden of A. H. Smee, 
Esq., The Grange, Carshalton, Surrey, a spot made famous by the elder Smee 
by the publication of his work “My Garden.” The place is still ably maintained by 
his son,: who, with the assistance of his gardener, Mr. Cummings, is now adding a 
large collection of Orchids to the many valuable and interesting plants to be found 
therein. 
Masdevallia macrura is a bold-growing and gigantic plant for one of its race, and its 
name is derived from its length of tails; it is the largest growing and flowering species 
which we know in the family, saving some of those plants included in the Camm#ra 
