Tetramicra
(from tetra, four, and micros, small; in allusion to the four smaller divisions of the anther). Including Leptotes. ORD. Orchideae. A genus including about half-a-dozen species of stove, terrestrial or epiphytal orchids, natives of tropical America, from Brazil to the West Indies. Flowers mediocre, pedicellate; sepals and petals sub-equal, free, spreading; lip affixed to the base of the column, free, spreading, the lateral lobes shortly clawed, the middle one broad, entire; column erect, broadly two-winged above or from the base; raceme simple, loose; peduncle terminal, elongated, slender, rigid. Leaves linear, fleshy, semi-terete or very short and thick. Stems leafy, scarcely thickened, not pseudo-bulbous. The best-known species are here described. They thrive under conditions which suit Sophronitis. They may be grown on blocks of Tree-fern stem with a little sphagnum round the collar of the plant, or in baskets of fibrous peat, sphagnum, potsherds, and a few pieces of charcoal, intermixed. Cool treatment best suits the species described below, and all like a light place; they do well when suspended near the roof of the cool Orchid house. They are propagated by division. T. bicolor (two-coloured). fl. solitary; sepals and petals white linear-oblong; lip having two very short lateral lobes, and an oblong front lobe nearly as long as the petals, white, streaked with purple on the disk; ovary very long, pedunculiform. Winter. l. solitary, terminating the stems, terete, recurved, fleshy, grooved above. Rhizome creeping, throwing up several slender stems about 1in. long, almost cylindrical. Brazil, 1831. SYN. Leptotes bicolor (B. R. 1625), L. b. var. (B. M. 3734).
T. rigida (rigid). fl., sepals and petals greenish; lip rosy, purple-striped, exserted, the lateral segments spreading, the middle one roundish-obovate, large; scape distantly sheathed, few-branched above or simple. March. l. few, 4in. to 8in. long, half-cylindrical, linear, channelled, acuminate, recurved. h. 1ft. to 2ft. West Indies. Plant rigid. SYN. Brassavola elegans (B. M. 3098).
T. serrulata (serrulated). fl. as in T. bicolor, but three or four times larger; lip white, with lines of brilliant lake radiating from the base, where it has two short, rounded auricles; scapes terminal, axillary, purple. April and May. l. cylindrical, fusiform, grooved, glaucous-green, dotted with purple. Stems sometimes two-leaved. Brazil. SYN. Leptotes serrulata (L. S. O. 11).