150 ORCHIDS OF THE CAPE PENINSULA. 
one, and remarkable for its great vertical and horizontal range. It is 
very distinct from any other except the following. 
14. Disa aemula, Bolus, in Journ. Linn. Soc., xxii. (1885), p. 69. 
—An erect, stout, glabrous herb, 13-2 ft. high; scape densely leafy ; 
leaves lanceolate, acuminate, undulate, sheathing at base, erect- 
spreading, the lower 6-8 in. long, the upper passing gradually into 
sheathing bracts; spike many-flowered, 9-12 in. long, 1-14 in. wide; 
bracts lanceolate, very acuminate, somewhat exceeding the flowers; 
side sepals falcate-oblong, acute, about 7 lines long; odd sepal galeate, 
horizontal, acute and notched at the apex, spur filiform, spreading and 
defiexed at the apex, the whole about 14 in. long; petals almost 
exactly those of the preceding species; lip oblong, or oblong-lanceo- 
late, entire, obtuse, ascending from the base and then deflexed, about 
5 lines long; anther nearly horizontal; rostellum short; ovary 
obtusely 8-angled. D. macrantha, Swartz, in Kongl. Vet. Acad. 
Handl., vol. 21 (1800), p.210??; Thunberg, Flor. Cap. (1823), p. 8 ??. 
Has. “Sands about Salt River, near Cape Town,” Dr. Harvey.—Also found 
near Tygerberg, fl. Nov., MacOwan; and near Groenekloof, Oct., Bolus, No. 4330. 
Coloured very much like the preceding, except on the lip, which is 
a dingy yellow variously marked with brown blotches, or a large cross ; 
the leaves are a more glaucous green, but also, like D. cornuta, banded 
with red spots on the under surface towards the base. 
This species has long been confused in herbaria with the last- 
named, the resemblance being sufficiently close to escape detection, 
especially when dry, without careful examination. The differences 
may be summed up as follows: the spike of the present species, 
though dense, is usually more slender and more acuminate than in 
D. cornuta; the bracts are narrower and more acuminate; the odd 
sepal less inflated and acute, though minutely notched (not obtuse) ; 
the spur horizontal for some distance (not immediately deflexed); the 
side sepals are narrower and more acute; the labellum oblong or 
nearly so (not broadly obovate); colour as above, while in D. cornuta 
the upper half is invariably a uniform deep velvety purple. 
It is an interesting question whether this is the D. macrantha of 
Swartz. It agrees partly, but not entirely, with his description ; but, 
since there is no authentic specimen of that species in Thunberg's 
herbarium, and no other plant, so far as is known, which agrees with 
his description, a new name for the present plant was an unavoidable 
necessity, notwithstanding the suspicion I feel that this may be a form 
of Thunberg’s plant. The name D. macrantha was subsequently 
applied by gardeners to a very different plant, viz., D. crassicornis, 
Lindley (D. megaceras, Hook. f., Bot. Mag., t. 6529), a native of the 
Eastern Province and Natal.—D. aemula is certainly rare on the 
