BLETIA. 21 



BLETIA. 



Ruiz et Pav. Prod. 119, t. 26 (1794). Bentli. et. Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 513 (1883). 

 A genus of terrestrial orchids, including about twenty species, for 

 the most part natives of tropical America, some of the most showy 

 of which have been occasionally introduced to British gardens, but 

 where they are now scarcely ever seen, except in botanical collec- 

 tions. The Bletia most generally cultivated at the present time is 

 the first described below; an outlying member of the genus from 

 China and Japan, and which has been but doubtfully referred to it* 

 but which, with the addition of some American species, now forms 

 the section Bletilla of Bentham. To this we have added descrip- 

 tions of three species of Bentham's section Eubletia, derived from 

 the Botanical Magazine, two of which were in cultivation in the 

 early part of the present century, and have been occasionally re- 

 introduced since. Bletia was founded by the Spanish botanists, 

 Ruiz and Pavon, on B. catenulata, a Peruvian species allied to B. 

 Sherrattiana, very rarely seen in cultivation, and dedicated by them 

 to their countryman, Don Luis Blet, an herbalist and apothecary. 

 The general characters of the genus will be easily understood from 

 the description of the species given below. 



Cultural Note. — The Bletias, like Thunia, Pleione, and some of the 

 Calantlies, are deciduous plants, and have alternate seasons of rest and 

 active growth. The pseudo-bulbs should be re-potted as soon as they 

 show signs of starting into growth, in a compost of loam and leaf- 

 mould, giving a drainage of broken crocks to about 2 inches in depth, 

 the pseudo-bulbs being simply covered with the soil, not pressed into 

 it. While growing, the plants should be fully exposed to the light, 

 placed in the Cattleya or intermediate house, and freely supplied with 

 water. Bletia hyacintliina is a half-hardy species, and may be cultivated 

 in a greenhouse. Wlien the flowering is past, and the foliage begins 

 to change colour, water must be gradually withheld and the plants kept 

 dormant until the following spring. 



Bletia hyacinthina. 



Pseudo-bulb.s tuberiforni. Stems 6 — 9 inches high, furnished with 

 3 — 5 lanceolate acute plaited leaves. Peduncles termmal, slender, 

 6 — 10 flowered. Flowers on short purplish twisted pedicels, not fully 

 expanding ; sepals and petals similar, oblanceolate-oblong, acute, ame- 

 thyst-purple ; lip three-lobed, the side lobes roundish oblong, convolute 

 over the column,* and coloured like the sepals and petals, the middle 



In the true Bletias the side lobes of the lip never enfold the column so distinctly as 

 they do in this species. 



