MASDEVALLIA. 481 



many-flowered. The peculiar feature of their flowers is that the three 

 sepals are connivent into a tube, less frequently free to the base, the 

 points of the sepals being extended into a tail-like form, and the petals 

 and lip are usually small and inconspicuous. They are natives of 

 Tropical and Central America, more than a hundred species having been 

 discovered, most of them within the last few years. In addition to the 

 species, varieties, and hybrids enumerated below, there are, besides, a 

 large number of species known to us which we do not consider of 

 sufficient interest to Orchid growers to describe them in these pages. 



Gnltwe. — The Masdevallias are beautiful neat-growing plants, and 

 should be in every collection, for thej^ occupy but little space, and are 

 both free-blooming and free-growing, provided they get the treatment 

 they require. They were for a long time grown in too much heat by 

 the majority of Orchid cultivators, but are found to grow best in the 

 cool house with and under the same treatment as Odontoglossums. They 

 should be potted in peat and sphagnum moss, with good drainage, and 

 always kept moist at the roots, though never allowed to get soddened by 

 the presence of bad soil or deficient drainage, which is too often the 

 case with these plants. It is a good plan to keep live sphagnum about 

 the roots, wliich not only looks neat and pleasing to the eye, but is an 

 index to the sweetness of the soil beneath, and an indication that it has 

 not become soddened By excess of stagnant water. Thus gro^vn in a 

 cool house they will produce a profusion of flowers, and will sometimes 

 bloom twice during the year. 



Masdevallias require, however, considerable attention and care to keep 

 them in good order, being subject to the attacks of the red thrips, which, 

 if allowed to accumulate, will soon disfigure the foliage and cause the 

 plants to dwindle away ; it is, therefore, necessary to keep a watchful 

 eye to prevent the intrusion of these pests, and to well wash the plants 

 whenever the first trace of them is seen. The plants should be placed 

 as much in the light and as near the glass as possible, but shaded from 

 the sun, and water should be freelj- given to them. 



M. AMABILIS, Bchb. f. — A very pretty species, forming dense tufts of 

 obovate-oblong obtuse emarginate leaves, about 5 inches long, on terete chan- 

 nelled footstalks which are closely sheathed at the base, and one-flowered 

 peduncles nearly twice the height of the leaves, bearing flowers of which the 

 perianth tube is orange-carmine above, white tinged with pink beneath, the 



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