286 THE ORCHID REVIEW [SEPTEMBER, IQI5. 
Ee BIFRENARIA BICORNARIA. A 
BIFRENARIA has just flowered in the collection of H. T. Pitt, Esq., 
Rosslyn, Stamford Hill (gr. Mr. Thurgood), which proves to be the 
rare B. bicornaria, a species that was described by Reichenbach in 1863 
(Hamb. Gartenz., 1863, p. 12), from a specimen which flowered in the 
collection of Consul Schiller, of Hamburg, and which is said to have been 
obtained from Brazil. It was described as an ally of B. aurantiaca, Lindl. 
The species seems to have been lost sight of for a considerable time, but in 
May, 1886, a plant flowered with Mr. John Day, who made a painting of-it 
(Orch. Draw., xxix. t. 91), remarking that it was from a plant sent by 
Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., of Clapton, at whose nursery they had Prof. 
‘Reichenbach’s authority for the name, and he added : “T never saw such 
remarkable lateral lobes to the labellum in any other species of the genus.” 
The fact is, the lip is very strongly three-lobed, and practically spurless, as 
in B. aurantiaca, to which it bears a considerable resemblance in habit. 
The inflorescence is about a foot high, and the flowers are deep yellow, 
‘strongly barred with brown. The side lobes of the lip are almost entirely 
-ofthe latter colour, and may be described as wedge-shaped, with a crenulate 
‘apex. Plants of the species have also flowered with Messrs. Charlesworth 
.& Co., and at Kew. ; R.A.R. 
MASDEVALLIA RACEMOSA.—The reproduction of a figure of Masdevallia 
‘racemosa showing a raceme of fifteen flowers recalls a crititism made some 
years ago (Woolw. Masdevallia): ‘‘ The mistaken idea that each flower- 
stem of M. racemosa produces numerous flowers, expanded at the same time, 
seems to have originated in the fact that some dried specimens with ten to 
fourteen flowers carefully arranged upon the dead stalks, were exhibited at 
the first sale of living plants, in 1883. The number of flowers developed at 
the same time never exceeds four and rarely exceeds two; among many 
specimens, both dried and living, I have never seen a stem with more than 
two open flowers. In Consul Lehmann’s descriptions of wild specimens 
collected by him, he mentions that the flowers appear 7m succession, some- 
times as many as eighteen upon one stem.” 
It is a question whether such 
erroneous blocks would not be better cancelled, for their reproduction 
without a word of warning is only misleading. Indeed the raceme is said 
to be “eight to fifteen-flowered,” but there is nothing to show that they are 
not open together, as represented. It may be added that the original of this 
€rroneous figure is now preserved at Kew, but the flowers are not attached to 
the raceme, as shown in the drawing.—R.A.R. 
