Tas. 7243. 
DISA INCARNATA. 
Native of Madagascar. 
Nat. Ord. Orncuipe%.—Tribe Orurypies. 
Genus Disa, Berg.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen, Pl. vol. iii. p. 630.) 
Disa(Eudisa)incarnata; caulibus foliosis, foliis lineari-elongatis subtus 5-costatis, 
scapo vaginato, spica subdensiflora, bracteis oblongo-lanceolatis spathaceis 
ovaria zquantibus, floribus aurantiacis, sepalo dorsali erecto lateralibus 
late oblongis obtusis minore medio dorso calcare laminze zquilongo tenui 
instructo, petalis dimidiato-ovatis infra apicem latere interiore appendice 
erecto lineari concavo instructis, labello angusto lineari deflexo sepalis 
aquilongo stigmate 2-lobo, polliniarum glandulis dissitis. 
D. incarnata, Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orchid. 348 ; Rolfe in Gard. Chron, 1892, i. 619, 
‘Fig. 88. 
HapenaBia incarnata, Lyall mss., ew Lindl. 1. ¢. 328. 
In his admirable work, ‘‘The Orchids of the Cape 
Peninsula” (off-print from Trans. 8. Afr. Phil. Soc., 1888), 
Mr. Bolus well remarks of the genus Disa that in the 
variety of its perianth it is only excelled perhaps by that 
of Habenaria and Catasetum, and is scarcely equalled by 
that of any other genus in the vegetable world. To this I 
would add that after a careful study of a large proportion 
of the species of Habenaria, including upwards of one 
hundred Indian, I find their flowers to be morphologically 
uniform as compared with those of Disa; nor does this 
remark apply to the perianth only, it extends to the column 
and its appendages, and even to the pollinia; for whereas 
in Disa, the glands of the latter may be either distinct and 
in separate pouches of the rostellum or connate and con- 
tained in one pouch, this character actually alone sepa- 
rates Habenaria from Orchis. I quite believe that had Disa 
been a European genus, it would have given rise to at least 
as many genera as Orchis and Habenaria have, that is about 
thirty-five, instead of the five included in it by Bolus, and 
upon much more marked structural characters. From 
such a dismemberment Disa has been saved by its remote 
JuLy Ist, 1892. 
