A native of Trinidad, whence it was introduced by the 
late Mr. Salisbury in the year 1786. It requires the heat 
of a very good stove, and is cultivated in a mixture of peat, 
sand, and loam. 
It has been generally supposed that this is a species 
distinct from B. florida, a plant which no cultivator has 
been able, for many years, to satisfy himself that he pos- 
sessed. For ourselves, we at one time were disposed to 
believe that B. florida was either a slight variety of Bletia 
verecunda, or absolutely the same plant; a supposition to 
which we were led by the account given of it in the last 
edition of the Hortus Kewensis. The diagnosis of it in 
that work is made to depend upon the cuneate form of the 
middle lobe of the labellum, its ridges being simple (not 
branched), and its lateral segments broadest (not narrowest) 
at the point; to which is added, as a character which it 
possesses in common with B. verecunda, a somewhat 
branched scape; Limodorum purpureum of Redouté's Li- 
liacées is quoted as a synonym; and finally, the English 
name is Purple Bletia. But this latter name is perfectly 
applicable to B. verecunda ; the plant figured by Redouté 
is unquestionably that species; and the ridges of the label- 
lum are often perfectly simple in the same ; so that of the 
characters and synonyms of B. florida, nothing is left to 
distinguish it except the form of the middle lobe of the 
labellum, and a not very intelligible difference in that of 
its lateral lobes. The character, however, in the Hortus 
Kewensis being very precisely worded, and the plant itself 
not belonging to a tribe that is difficult of cultivation, and 
therefore not likely to be lost, it appeared to us more pro- 
bable that some inaccuracy should exist in the Hortus 
Kewensis, than that the species should no longer be found 
in any of the great collections near London. In renewing 
the search for it, we have found nothing to which it is 
probable that the name ought to be attached, except the 
plant now represented, the B. pallida of Mr. Loddiges ; 
and, after much consideration, we have come to the conclu- 
sion, that, notwithstanding certain differences that exist 
between this and the account in the Hortus Kewensis, they 
are really the same species. It is true, that the scape of 
B. pallida is, as far as we have ever seen, unbranched, 
that the name purple is inapplicable to it, and that the 
