Tab. 7206. 

 disa tkipetaloides. 



Native of South Africa. 



Nat. Ord. Orchide^. — Tribe Opiiryde^:. 

 Genus Disa, Berg. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 630.) 



Disa (Eudisa) tripetaloides ; glaberriina, foliis gramineis v. anguste lineari- 

 oblongis acuminatis dorso carinatis, scapo elongato stricto erecto vaginato, 

 vaginis appressis acuminatis, spicis laxifloris, bracteis lanceolatis acumi- 

 natis ovario basi vaginato brevioribus viridibus, ovario torto, floribusalbis 

 roseo suffusis 1 poll, latis, sepalo dorsali galeato subhemispherico in 

 calcar breviore rectum constricto intus sanguineo-maculato, sepalis 

 lateralibiis alaaformibus rotundato-obovatis obscure maculatis, petalis 

 carnosis galea inclusis lineari-oblongis apicibus incurvis rubro fasciatis, 

 labello minuto lineari, columna incurva antice concava basi bigibba, 

 rostello breviter bifido, anthera reflexa apice unguiculata, polliniis pyri- 

 formibus bilobis, caudicula breve, glandula minuta. 



D. tripetaloides, N. E. Brown in Gard. Chron. 1889, vol. i. p. 360 ; Masters 

 I. c. 1890, vol. i. p. 766, fig. 127. 



Orchis tripetaloides, Linn. Suppl. p. 198 ; Syst. Veg. Ed. xiv. p. 807. 



D. excelsa, Thunb. El. Cap. 14 in part. 



D. venosa, Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orchid. 357, non Swartz. 



Mr. Brown, in his description of this plant, says that 

 though an old one it is now published for the first time 

 under a new name. It is the Orchis tripetaloides of the 

 younger Linnasus, discovered by Thunberg at the Cape of 

 Good Hope a century ago, but was confused by its 

 discoverer in his Herbarium and Flora with his Disa excelsa, 

 which again is compounded of the leaves of D. tripetaloides 

 and the stem and flowers of another plant. Lindley, in 

 his Genera and Species of Orchidese, has wrongly referred 

 the D. tripetaloides, Lindl., to Disa venosa of Swartz, a very 

 different plant, which has again been confused with D. 

 racemosa. 



The above is the result of Mr. N. E. Brown's examina- 

 tion of the Herbarium of Thunberg, which was generously 

 lent to the Royal Gardens of Kew by the University of 

 Upsala (through the instrumentality of Professor Theod. 

 Fries) for the purpose of identifying the Orchids ; and the 

 results of which will, it is hoped, soon be published. 

 November 1st, 1891. 



