MASDEVALLIA SHUTTLEWORTHII. 
[Puate 5.] 3 
Native of the United States of Colombia. 
Epiphytal. Rhizome slender, slowly creeping. Leaves crowded, petiolate, the 
petiole with a sheathing scale at the base, the blade about equalling the petiole, 
two to three inches long, elliptic-oblong, acute, pale green, obscurely three to five- 
nerved. Scapes numerous, slender, as long as or longer than the petioles, green, 
with an ovate acuminate appressed bract at the top. owers yellowish, tinted with 
rose, rather large for the size of the plant; the perianth tube very short and 
swollen at the base; dorsal sepal of a pale yellowish red, indistinctly dotted with 
pale rosy red spots, and marked with from five to seven (or nine according to 
Reichenbach) longitudinal wine-coloured nerves, fully an inch long, sub-erect, concave 
or somewhat hooded, obovate, suddenly contracted into a tail two or three times 
its own length, the tail green below and becoming orange-yellow towards the tip; 
lateral sepals obliquely ovate, spreading, and decurved, thickly studded with wee 
red spots, and tapering off into a tail similar to that of the dorsal sepal; petals 
small, linear-oblong or ligulate, bilobed at the apex; lip very small, broadly oblong, 
recurved at the tip, with two keels or ridges running down the centre. Column 
short, three-toothed at the apex. 
Maspevatuia Saurrieworrut, Reichenbach Jil. in Gardeners’ Chronicle, x.s. iii., 170; 
Looker fil., Botanical Magazine, t. 6372. 
Of this interesting plant, one of a popular genus inhabiting the cool temperate 
humid regions of Northern and Western South America, Professor Reichenbach, by 
whom it was dedicated to Mr. Shuttleworth, one of Mr. W. Bull’s collectors, remarks 
that it is “rather a nice thing amongst Masdevallias of the second order of beauty.” 
It was first flowered in 1878 by W. H. Punchard, Esq., of Poulett Lodge, Twickenham. 
Our figure was prepared from a plant which has bloomed in our own collection 
recently. We find it to be a very free-blooming species. 
The Masdevallias comprise many interesting species and varieties, some of very 
remarkable structure, and others with colours of extraordinary richness and brillianey. 
Our present subject is not one of the most showy, but it may be ranked with the 
more curious of the species, and is certainly of a distinct and pleasing character, 
as is well represented in our Plate. The plant was discovered by Mr. Shuttleworth, 
when travelling for Mr. Bull, and by him it was first transmitted to Europe. Since 
then we have received it from the same country through our own collector, Mr. 
Carder. The Masdevallias are plentiful in their native habitats, but the difficulty of 
obtaining them in this country lies in the risks attending importation, which are 
mainly attributable to the fact that they have no thick fleshy bulbs to support them 
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