Plate 149. 



MASDEVALLIA CHIMERA. 



For the last year or eighteen months great uncertainty has existed as to the identity of 

 this plant and that figured on the next plate — viz., M. Nycterina. The confusion was caused 

 by M. Linden publishing a coloured figure of the latter plant in the Illustration Horticole, 

 xx. PL 117, under the name of M. Chimcsra. As M. Linden also sold plants with the names 

 transposed, it followed as a consequence that many plant merchants and private gentlemen 

 who fancied they had M. CIrimara in their collections had the next species figured on Plate 

 1 50. The true M. Chimara was first described by Professor Reichenbach in the Gardeners 

 Chronicle as far back as April 6th, 1872, p. 463; but so rare has it been in collections (if, 

 indeed, it has been in cultivation at all in this country) that until the end of last year no one 

 had seen the living plant in flower in any of our nurseries or private establishments. The 

 honour of flowering it for the first time in our nurseries was reserved for Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, 

 and to this gentleman we are therefore indebted for the opportunity of presenting our 

 readers with the accompanying coloured figure, taken from his establishment in the King's 

 lioad on the 17 tli of December last. M. Chimara was discovered by M. Roezl in the western 

 districts of South America, and the extraordinary habit and coloration of the plant can 

 be well understood by our figure. In M. Roezl's original sketch however, as forwarded to 

 Professor Reichenbach, the fiowerstalks are represented with five flowers, so that under the 

 good cultivation the plant is sure to receive under the hands of Mr. Bull and other plant 

 merchants, we may expect M. Chimara soon to put on a far more imposing appearance than 

 it does with us at present. 



Plate 150. 

 MASDEVALLIA NYCTERINA. 



Attention was first called to this truly extraordinary plant by Professor Reichenbach in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle for September 13th, 1873, p. 1238. He there refers to M. Linden's 

 figure of M. Nycterina (erroneously named M. Chimcera), and gives a botanical description of 

 the plant here figured. Our drawing was taken from a specimen in Mr. Day's collection at 

 Tottenham on the 18th of April, 1874, and represents one of the plants sold by M. Linden 

 himself in error for M. Chimcsra. So that with the accompanying Plate and Plate 149 no 

 further confusion need exist as to the two plants in question. M. Nycterina is not now 

 uncommon in nurseries and private collections, and it has more than once appeared at our 

 flower shows ; that it is an inferior plant to the last there can be no question, but still from 

 its extraordinary inflorescence it must always keep its place as one of the most curious of 

 Masdevallias. It varies considerably in the size of its leaves and flowers, and in the length 

 of its long sepaline tails, and was originally (like the last) introduced to our gardens by 

 M. Linden from New Granada, and also, like the last, when under cultivation requires the 

 treatment of a cool stove. "When the first flower is produced the stem extends a new inter- 

 node, which carries a new flower, so that each flower stem will produce four or five flowers, 

 and the old stems from which the flowers have dropped are shown in our illustration. The 

 bracts shown on Plate 149 are, however, of a different nature, and it seems an open question 

 at present whether either of these two Masdevallias bear more than one open flower at the 

 same time on the individual flower stems. 



