FLOWEKING OF OKCHIDEtE. 
483 
dance from the forks of the trees, and the fine Phajus 
that I have already spoken of rearing its magnificent 
head in the gloom of the hush. The rose-coloured 
Bletia of Bluefields Mountain, which at the com- 
mencement of the drought showed only the withered 
leaves crowning the round compacted bulbs, was in 
full fiower at the latter part of this period ; and it 
was in March of the following year, a season even 
more arid than the former, that I met with the pro- 
fuse blossom of the lovely purple Bletia, growing on 
a precipitous rock on the banks of the Rio Cobre. 
Towards the end of the dry period I saw Epid, fra- 
grans and Ep. cochleatum in blossom on open trees 
in the beautiful park-like pen called the Kepp, in the 
Luana Mountains ; and, a little later, Brasavola nodosa 
fiowered at Bluefields, where it is abundant. It is 
w’orthy of remark that I had found this species in 
blossom at Alligator Pond in company with Brough- 
tonia sanguinea, during the early part of December, 
when it rained nearly every day ; yet around Blue- 
fields, while the latter, as already mentioned, was 
fiowering profusely, the former was fiowerless until 
the beginning of March. 
At the same time many kinds were out of bloom 
throughout this season, some of which flowered soon 
after the commencement of the vernal rains. Maxil- 
laria Barringtonice, whose great wrinkled bulbs had 
been conspicuous on the mountain trunks, threw out 
its fieshy flowers from among the roots about the 
end of March, and continued flowering through April. 
A little later, the long spikes of Oncidium Cartha- 
ginense were waving in the breeze all through the 
