44 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 
two or three degrees of frost it will continue to furnish its 
heads of graceful, drooping flowers, bright scarlet, with 
creamy-white stripes through each petal. ‘The bulb is 
about the size of a crocus corm, and is readily produced 
by seeds, or slowly by offsets. The bulbs should be kept 
warm end dry through the winter. The Bessera requires 
the same conditions of cultivation, and the same care 
when at rest as the Tigridia. The flower stems are from 
twelve to twenty inches in height, producing an umbel 
of from twelve to thirty flowers, very useful in all natural 
arrangements of loose flowers; they are especially fitted, 
by contrast, to go with the Milla biflora, with its unique 
pure white flowers and graceful habit. ‘The upper flow- 
ers in the engraving (Page 43) are those of the Bessera. 
BLANDFORDIA. 
A genus of very beautiful Australian bulbs that 
have long been known, and but little cultivated. ‘They 
are exclusively greenhouse, evergreen bulbs, and require 
some degree of attention at all times, for which cause 
they are but little grown, excepting in large collections, 
and where plants are not grown for their commercial 
value. Although the plant belongs to the Liliaceae, its 
habit of growth and general appearance more closely 
resembles Amaryllidacee. It is a tuberous-rooted plant, 
in consequence of which, its habit is entirely dissimilar 
from that of bulbs. Its flowers are of gorgeous colors, 
produced on short, strong stems, in regular umbels. 
The plant requires regular greenhouse treatment, and to 
be watered sparingly when not in active growth. Prop- 
agation is readily effected by offsets. There are several 
species, all of the same general character. 
B. Cunninghamii, with coppery red flowers, and 
B. grandiflora, with orange and yellow flowers, 
fully represent the species. 
BLOOD FLOWER. 
See Heemanthus. 
