TAB. Good. 
DISA PpoLYGONOIDES. 
Native of Natal. 
Nat. Ord. OncH1DEx.—Tribe OPHRYDER. 
Genus Disa, Berg; (Endl. Gen. Pl. p. 211.) 
Disa (Macrantha) polygonoides ; elata, robusta, caule folioso, foliis lineari- v. ligu- 
lato-lanceolatis longe acuminatis planiusculis 5-nerviis, superioribus abbreviatis 
vagineformibus acutis cauli_appressis, spica densa ovoidea v. cylindracea, 
bracteis oblongo-lanceolatis a a aurantiacis brevioribus v. paulo longioribus, 
sepalo superiore erecto oblongo concavo dorso basi in calcar breve descendens 
producto, sepalis lateralibus late ovatis apice rotundatis, petalis parvis erectis 
lineari-oblongis obtusis apicibus incurvis, labello lineari obtuso, anthera 
angusta. . 
D. polygonoides, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orchid. p. 349. 
A very different-looking plant from the Disa megaceras, 
figured in this number of the Magazine, though agreeing in 
all generic characters most closely, and when more fully 
developed, as in some of the native specimens preserved in 
the Herbarium, a very striking plant, the-spike of orange 
flowers sometimes attaining a foot in length. From notes 
on the Herbarium specimens the colour of the flowers seems 
to vary a good deal, from bright canary-yellow to light red 
and even scarlet. It is very near indeed to Swartz’s D. 
chlorostachya, differing chiefly, if not wholly, in the shorter 
less inflated spur. 
D. polygonoides inhabits marshy valleys, and has a very 
wide range, from Grahamstown eastward to Natal; and 
from the number of collectors who have sent it, it would 
appear to be a very common orchid. The tubers of the 
specimen figured were presented to Kew by W. B. Lyle, 
Ksq., of Kirkley Vale Estate, Natal, and flowered in Sep- 
tember of the present year in the temperate Orchid House. | 
Descr. Tubers reaching four inches long, subcylindric. 
Stem tall, stout, one to two feet high, leafy, often as thick 
DECEMBER Ist, 1880. 
