-. 6 



j.f. 



SUB-TRIBE ERIE^. 



Inflorescence lateral, pseudo -terminal, or from the rhizome distinct 

 from the leaf-hearing pseudo-hulbs. Column alviost always extended 

 into a foot. Pollinia eight, four in each cell* 



CCELIA. 



Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 36 (1831). Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 508 (1883). 

 Coelia includes four or five species inhabiting the West Indies, 

 Mexico, and Central America, of which three have been introduced 

 into European gardens. The genus was founded by Dr. Lindley 

 upon a drawing of Ccelia Baueriana made by the distinguished 

 botanical artist, Francis Bauer, who, however, " represented the 

 pollen masses as being four in number and concavo-convex, so 

 that by lying in pairs, side by side, each pair formed a hollow 

 body, narrower at back than in front, a circumstance that suggested 

 the name of the genus (from /coi'Xog, hollow). When fresh speci- 

 meus were subsequently examined, it was found that no such 

 structure as that represented by Bauer exists ; on the contrary, 

 the pollinia are eight in number, placed in two series of double 

 pairs, and of the supposed hollowing out no trace is discoverable. ""j" 

 The name Ccelia, nevertheless, was retained by Lindley and adopted 

 by his successors. 



The most obvious generic characters are : — The long narrow, more 

 or less folded and veined leaves ; the densely racemose sca^^es (three- 

 flowered only in Ccelia hella) which spring from the base of the latest 

 formed pseudo-bulbs ; the column produced into a short foot, to which 

 the two lateral sepals are adnate at their base ; and the three-winged 

 capsule. 



Cultural Note. — Ccelia hella requires the average annual temperature of 

 the Cattleya house ; a moist atmosphere and a liberal supply of water 

 during its season of growth are requisite to insure the pseudo-bulbs 



* Ccelia, Pachystoma, Ipsea, and Spathoglottis form part of this sub-tribe, of which Eria 

 supplies the type, a genus including upwards of eighty species, none of which properly fall 

 within the scope of the present work. We may, however, mention that Eria ohcsa, E. cimut- 

 harina, E. florihunda, and two or three others are among the species sometimes met with 

 in private collections. 



t Bot. Reg. 1842, sub. t. 36. 



