Tab. 6891. 
DISA atropurPuREA. 
Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Nat. Ord. OncHIpEx.—Tribe OpHRYDEx. 
Genus Disa, Berg.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 630.) 
Disa (Trichochila) atrosanguinea ; foliis gramineis rigidis acuminatis canaliculatis 
ultra medium sensim latioribus, scapis foliis longioribus 1-2-floris, vaginis 
3 appressis acuminatis, bracteis cuspidatis ovarium subzquantibus, floribus 
purpureis, galea ampla ovato-rotundata acuta concava marginibus incurvis, 
calcare brevi lato subinflato apice rotundato, sepalis lateralibus oblongis 
incurvis, petalis parvis medio constrictis basi dilatatis supra medium late 
cuneatis 2-fidis, labello late ovato-cordato acuminato undulato-crispato, ungue 
brevi gracili. 
D. atrosanguinea, Sonder in Linnea, vol. xix. (1847), p- 96. 
The Cape of Good Hope may prove to be the head- 
quarters of terrestrial Orchids in the southern hemisphere, 
if not in the globe. No fewer than a hundred species of 
Disa are already known, and Harvey, in the second edi- 
tion of his Genera of South African plants, enumerates 
thirty-five genera of terrestrial habit, some of them with 
very numerous species. In Australia, including the 
tropical half of that continent, there are about the 
Same number of genera, but only about 180 species of 
these are described in Bentham’s “ Flora Australiensis.”’ 
In Europe, Nyman, in his “ Conspectus Flore Europze,” 
enumerates twenty-eight genera and 110 species. In 
North America they are fewer still, and neither tropical 
South America nor tropical Africa has hitherto been prolific 
in this class of. plant. Asia remains, where the majority 
are Himalayan species of European genera or tropical 
genera of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, but they 
have never been enumerated. Nor will the Cape yield to 
any country in the beauty of its terrestrial Orchids, which 
no doubt centres in the genus Disa. ae 
Disa atrosanguinea is a native of the Worcester district 
of the Cape, where it was first found near a waterfall at 
the town of Tulbagh by the botanical travellers Ecklon and 
_ avevst Isr, 1886. 
