142 ORCHIDS OF THE CAPE PENINSULA. 
never observed any approach to this habit, nor does Sonder mention 
it. The figure in the ‘ Botanical Register,’ if I am right in quoting it 
as a synonym, gives but a poor idea of the plant as it grows wild. 
4. Disa micrantha.—Glabrous, erect, 6-18 inches high. Stem 
leafy, short or elongate; leaves numerous, linear, acuminate, erect or 
laxly spreading, 2-6 in. long; upper gradually smaller ; spike cylindrical, 
21-6 in. long; bracts ovate-acuminate, or with fine hair-like points, 
usually longer and sometimes much longer than the flower, or the 
uppermost about equalling the flower; side sepals falcate-ovate, acute, 
about 14 lines long; odd sepal arched, with an oblong sub-acute limb 
about 2 lines long, and a straight tapering spur, 13-2 lines long, 
always shorter than the ovary; petals obliquely falcate, acute, fleshy ; 
lip linear-oblong, obtuse, fleshy and thickened at the apex, 1} lines 
long; rostellum low, with short arms; caudicles scarcely any, some- 
times absent; stigma square-shaped, hollowed. Monadenia micrantha, 
Lindley, in Gen. & Sp. Orch. (1838), p. 857. 
Has. Sandy moist places on the Flats and on the mountain-sides up to 
3500 ft., fl. Sept.-Nov., Bolus, 3859; Drége, 1261; Ecklon & Zeyher, 4680.— 
Extends eastward to Grahamstown (Mac Owan, 381; Burchell, 4015, 6139), and 
northward to various localities. 
Side sepals yellow, tipped with red; odd sepal dull red; petals 
and lip yellow. This is the commonest species of the group, and is 
readily distinguished by its minute flowers from every other, except 
_ D. pygmea, It varies in the length of the bracts, and in the length 
and thickness of the spur, which is sometimes short and somewhat 
inflated. Such forms approach D. multiflora, but the flowers are 
always much smaller. 
5. Disa ophrydea.—Glabrous, erect, 6-16 inches high; stem 
elongate, stout or slender, thinly leafy; leaves 2 or 8, mostly at the 
base, linear, acute, involute; 2-4 in. long; spike variable, usually 
about half as long as the plant, and somewhat distantly flowered ; 
bracts ovate, acute, nearly as long as the flowers; side sepals ovate- 
oblong, obtuse, widely-spreading, about 5 lines long; odd sepal with 
an arched cuneate-obovate obtuse limb, a little longer than the sepals, 
spur filiform, about 1 inch long, equalling the ovary; petals falcate, 
acute, oblique at base; lip tongue-shaped, obtuse, about 4 inch long ; 
rostellum high, with prominent reflexed side ridges; stigma umbonate, 
prominent. Monadenia ophrydea, Lindley, Gen. & Sp. Orch. (1888), 
p. 808. M. lancifolia, Sonder, in Linnea, vol. xix. (1847), p. 100. 
Has. In moist places on the plateaux of Muizenberg and Table Mountain, &c., 
1400-2500 ft., fl. Oct., Zeyher, 2924 ; Bolus, 4538; Herb. Norm. Austr.-Afr., 171. 
The stem, bracts, and sepals are a more or less deep red, the petals 
and lip a very dark red purple. In general habit this comes nearest 
