288 CXXXII. ORCHIDEZ (BROWN). [ Brownleea. 
obtuse, spur cylindrical, curved nearly in a circle, a little thickened 
at apex. Lateral sepals irregularly quadrangular, exterior lower 
angle almost a right angle, obtuse. Petals none (?) Lip very broadly 
oblong, obtuse. Rostellum short, ligulate—Disa apetala, Kranz]. in 
Engl. Pfi. Ost-Afr, C. 153 ; and in Engl. Jahrb. xxii. 21. 
Mozamb. Dist. German East Africa: Kilimanjaro ; Useri, 6000 ft., Volkens, 
1969. 
I have not seen this plant. The petals are stated to be entirely absent, with a 
doubtful suggestion that they may be connate with the lateral sepals, but I have little 
doubt that they more or less adhere to the dorsal sepal, and have been overlooked. I 
therefore place it under the genus Brownleea, which only differs from Disa by that 
character, 
46, DISPERIS, Sw.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii, 633 
(by R. A. Rolfe). 
Dorsal sepal erect, galeate or calcarate; lateral spreading, oblique, 
free or more or less united, dorsally saccate or calcarate near the 
inner margin. Petals united to dorsal sepal, falcately curved, usually 
constricted in the middle, and obliquely acute or lobed at apex; 
base sometimes auriculate. Lip adnate to the face of the column, long 
clawed above it, variously curved within the galea; apex simple or 
dilated into an entire sharply reflexed limb, bearing on its face a tooth- 
like or bilobed appendage, either directed to the back of the spur or 
incurved towards its. mouth; very rarely inappendiculate. Column 
erect, very stout; rostellum large, membranous, bilobed, produced in 
front into two rigid cartilaginous arms, holding at their extremities the 
glands of the pollinia. Clinandrium horizontal or ascending ; anther- 
cells distinct, parallel, somewhat approximate; pollen granules secund 
in a double row on the margins of the flattened caudicles, which curl up 
ina spiral on removal. Stigma bilobed ; lobes situated on either side of 
the adnate claw of the lip, approximate or somewhat distant. Capsule 
cylindrical or ovoid-oblong, ribbed.—Terrestrial herbs, usually small or 
slender, with ovoid tubers. Leaves one to few, alternate, or limited 
to a single opposite pair. Flowers in racemes or solitary. Bracts 
medium-sized or large and leaf-like. 
A genus of about forty species, most numerous in extra-tropical South Africa, with 
four in the Mascarene Islands, and two in South India. 
One of the most natural and sharply defined genera in the Order, with remark- 
ably complex structure.. Its most striking peculiarities are, the prominent side arms 
of the rostellum, over which the sacs of the lateral sepals exactly fit before the 
flowers expand, and the remarkable diversities in the lip, which is adnate to the face of 
the column, narrowly clawed above it, and then variously lobed or appendaged, this 
latter part being enclosed within the galea formed by the union of the petals inside 
the saccate or concave dorsal sepal. The appendage of the lip often exceeds the free 
limb in size, though not invariably so, and in D. Anthoceros it is altogether absent. 
The shape and direction of the two are also so variable that they are sometimes con- 
fused. The former, however, may easily be recognised by the fact that it arises from 
the face of the latter, being homologous with the crest of other genera. in some 
cases it is directed to the back of the spur, and in others to its mouth, and it 1s 
