MASDEVALLIA. 499 



growth, with oblanceolate leaves, keeled behind and tapered to the base ; the 

 scapes, which each bear one blossom, are much shorter than the leaves, and 

 spread out horizontally ; the flowers have a short slender dark purple tube, 

 and three sepals, which together form a triangular limb about 2 inches deep, 

 each being continued into a subulate tail about 2 inches long, so that the 

 expanse of the flower from tip to tip of the opposite tail is about 6 inches ; the 

 colour of the broader parts is a pale buff-yellow, beautifully blotched and 

 spotted with purple-brown, the whole of the surface being also covered with 

 minute hairs, and the tails are wholly of the same purple-brown tint as the 

 spots ; the lip, which in these plants is seldom conspicuous, is here larger than 

 usual, and forms rather a prominent object in the centre of the flower, having 

 a buff strap-shaped claw and an incurved sacciform white limb. This species 

 forms a very interesting subject for a basket, as the flowers are produced hori- 

 zontally from the base of the plant. Blooms in summer. — New Grenada. 



FlQ.—L'IU. Hort., 3id ser., tt. 117, 118 (C/iimaera) ; Floral Mag., 2ud ser., t. 150 ; 

 ^ard. Cliroi)., U.S., i. p. 639, 1 134 ; Id., xvi. p. 336, f. 61. 



M. PARLATOREANA, Bchh. f. — Another natural hybrid, believed to have 

 the same parentage as M. splendida, but to be the inverted cross of that, as 

 Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons have produced artificial hybrids between the two 

 species which cannot be distinguished from the natural hybrids. " Since in the 

 shape of the flower it comes very near to M. Barlaeana we may now guess that it is 

 perhaps a hybrid between M. Veitchiana and Barlaeana, and M. spectahilis between 

 VeitcMana and amahilis. As in M. Barlaeana, there is a very wide interval 

 Ijetween the lateral sepals, which are remarkably short tailed ; the flowers are 

 light flesh colour (salmon colour) outside, finest scarlet with amethyst warts 

 inside, the small inner organs being white and violet-amethyst; the sepals 

 have a short stalk, they are oblong-ligulate, acute, semi-sagittate at the base, 

 with a longitudinal oblique keel ; the lip is oblong, with obscure lateral blunt 

 lobes, it is white, with a very dark violet spot at the top, and a longitudinal 

 middle line that is violet, and spreads in two shanks towards the base ; column 

 semi-terete, acuminate, white with violet angles " (H. G. Eeichenbach, in 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, N.S., 1879, xi. p. 172). It was dedicated to the late 

 Professor Filippo Parlatore of Florence, an eminent botanist. — Peru. 



M. PERISTERIA, Echh. f. — This is rather a showy species of the coriaceous 

 group and a strong grower. It has been introduced some fifteen or sixteen 

 j-ears and has become plentiful. Stems densely clustered, attaining a height 

 of about 6 inches ; leaves broadly oblong, obtuse, very thick and fleshy in 

 texture, deep green, and persistent ; scape some 3 inches high, stout, erect, 

 bearing a somewhat large triangular flower, the sepals being each lengthened 

 out into a long tail-like point, tubular portion of flower strongly ribbed on the 

 exterior, colour clear yellow, in some forms greenish-yellow, in others rich 

 tawny-yellow, thickly dotted with reddish-purple, tails yellow ; lip prominent, 

 recurved at the point, freely dotted with bright purple protuberances. Flowers 

 iu the spring months. — Antioquia, U. S. of Colombia. 



Fig. — JBot. Mag., t. 6159 ; Flore dcs Scrres, xxii. t. 2346. 



Nl. POLYSTICTA, Bchl. /.—A very pretty free-blooming species of the 

 racemose-flowered group. The plants form a dense tuft of spathulate- 



32* 



