The first tropical Orchid to flower in the British Isles appears to have been Bletia verecunda (Helleborine americana), figured in Historia Plantorum Rariorum, 1728-1735. It bloomed in 1732 on a plant received by Peter Collinson from the Bahamas in the previous year. In succession to this appeared Cypripedium spectabile and one or two other North American Cypripediums; Vanilla aromatica, and a few other species, chiefly terrestrial Orchids. In 1789 Aiton's Hortus Kewensis enumerated fifteen species of exotic Orchids as being in cultivation at Kew, the tropical species being Bletia verecunda, Epidendrum fragrans, Epidendrum cochleatum, and Phaius grandifolius.
