( 108 ) 
I.—LIPARIS. 
L. C. Richard, in Memoires du Mus. d’ Hist. Nat. vol. iv. (1818), p. 52; 
Bentham & Hooker f., Gen. Plant. vol. iii. (1888), p. 495 ; H. N. 
Ridley, Monograph in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), vol. xxii. (1887), 
pp. 244-297. 
Sepals and petals all free and spreading, equal and similar, or the 
petals and dorsal sepal narrower. Lip much broader, united to the 
column at the base, erect or ascending, entire or indistinctly lobed. 
Column elongated, incurved, the apex winged. Anther lid-like, ter- 
minal. Pollen-masses 4, waxy, ovoid, equal in pairs in the two cells, 
free or slightly united at the apex. — Small terrestrial or epiphytical 
herbs, the stems sometimes thickened at base into small pseudo-bulbs, 
with few leaves, and a scape bearing a raceme of small greenish or 
purplish flowers. (Name from Asrapos, fat or shining, in allusion to 
the smooth or unctuous leaves). 
Distrisution. — Mr. H. N. Ridley’s Monograph (loc. cit.) enume- 
rates 110 species, spread over the warmer and temperate regions of 
the world. There are two other 8.-African species—L. Bowkeri, Harvey, 
from Grahamstown to Natal; and L. Gerrardi, Reichenbach f., Natal. 
1. Liparis Capensis, Lindley, in Annals of Natural History, vol. ii. 
(1840), p. 314.—Glabrous, 2-4 inches high; stem thickened below the 
soil into an ovate, whitish pseudo-bulb, having the withered bulb of 
the previous year attached; leaves usually two, lying flat on the 
ground, ovate, subacute, thick, leathery, with depressed veins, shining 
above, 1-23 inches long (luxuriant specimens show smaller third and 
fourth leaves); raceme 10-830 flowered, the rhachis angular from the 
decurrent, lanceolate bracts, which are shorter than the ovaries; 
flowers spreading, about 4 inch long; side sepals oblong, oblique, 
2 lines long; back sepal longer, with recurved margins, all reflexed ; 
petals linear, margins recurved, 3 lines long; lip oblong, with raised 
sides, somewhat saddle-shaped, fleshy, obsoletely 3-lobed at the apex, 
about 14 line long; column oblong-cuneate, thick, shorter than the 
lip; capsule terete, about 8 lines long, including the pedicel. Sturmia 
capensis, Sonder, in ‘ Linnea,’ vol. xix. (1847), p. 71. 
Has. In heathy sandy places on the Cape Flats, near Rondebosch; hills 
behind Simon’s Town, 800 feet; mountain sides, Table Mountain, 2500 feet; 
fl. April—June. Herb. Norm. Austr.-Afr., 151; Zeyher, 3887; Bolus, 4598. 
—Extends eastward to the Hottentot’s Holland range of mountains. 
There are specimens, in fruit only, in the Kew Herbarium, collected 
by Mann on the Cameroon Mt., at one time regarded by Dr. J. D. 
Hooker as identical with this species; but this is certainly doubtful. 
The flowers are greenish, becoming yellow as they wither. The 
