Masdevallia Harryana Coerulescens. [Flag Orchid]

Description

original-colour lithograph. Botanical print from “Orchid album Comprising Colored Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare and Beautiful Orchidaceous Plants”, Volume 1, pl. 24. John Nugent Fitch (1840–1927) was a British botanical illustrator and lithographer, best known for his contribution of 528 plates to The Orchid Album, a landmark work of eleven volumes published between 1872 and 1897. Benjamin Samuel Williams (1822 – 1890) was an English orchidologist in London, known mainly for his horticultural notes on orchids in publications, such as The Orchid Grower’s Manual (London 1871), Select Orchidaceous Plants (London 1862 onwards) and The Orchid Album (London 1882-97). These flowers are very large and of fine substance, the two lower sepals having together almost a circular outline, and measuring across the centre 2-1/2 inches. These lateral sepals are broadly semi-ovate and apiculate, and of a rich magenta-crimson, flushed with bluish-purple.