Tan. 7066. 
DISA LACERA, var. mutriripa. 
Native of Cape Town. 
Nat. Ord. OrcHipEm.—Tribe OrHRyDEX. 
Genus Disa, Berg; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iti. p. 630.) 
Disa (Herschelia) lacera ; erecta, glabra, foliis radicalibus anguste gramineis 
scapo flexuoso laxe 2-6-floro brevioribus, vaginis paucis bracteisque late 
ovatis acuminatis membranaceis, sepalis lateralibus ovato-oblongis sub- 
acutis patentibus, dorsali galeato ore orbiculari, calcare brevi conico, petalis 
columne adnatis e basi late auriculata repente angustatis geniculatis 
apice attenuato spinescente integerrimo, labello ovato-oblongo obtuso 
plano integerrimo crenato v. fimbriato. 
D. lacera, Swartz in Act. Holm. 1800, p. 212; Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. iv. p. 50; 
Thunb. Fl. Cap. p. 12; Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orchid. 354; Journ. of 
Horticult. 1888, p. 221, fig. 24. Bolus in Journ. Linn. Soe. vol. xxv. p. 202. 
Var. multifida; lip fimbriate nearly to the base, WV. E. Brown in Gard. 
Chron, 1888, vol. ii. p. 664. 
I follow Mr. N. E. Brown in referring this plant to a form 
of Swartz’s Disa lacera, because it agrees with the species 
so named in the Kew Herbarium, and which Lindley has 
accepted as the type of D. lacera, and notwithstanding the 
discrepancy admitted by Mr. Brown himself, namely, that 
D. lacera is described by Thunberg as a white-flowered 
plant. Unfortunately, authentic specimens of D. lacera are 
not known to exist; there are none in Swartz’s or Thun- 
berg’s Herbaria, and Sparrman is cited as the discoverer of 
the species. Another point in favour of this determination 
is, that the typical lacera is described as having the lip fim- 
briated at the tip only, and such is the case with some of 
the specimens in the Kew Herbarium, whilst in others it is 
fimbriated or crenate all round, and there are all degrees 
of intermediates in this character. Lindley describes the 
leaves as rigidand contorted, and the sepalsas all terminating 
in a point (cwm acumine), neither of which characters are 
apparent in our cultivated specimens, where the leaves are 
straight and the dorsal sepal rather obtuse. 
The plant here figured was brought to Kew from Cape 
Juty Ist, 1889. 
