DISA. 157 
more angular, cuneate back sepal, its less rounded side-sepals, &c. It 
varies somewhat in the shape of the petals which I have described 
from the form on the Peninsula; those I have seen from Port Elizabeth 
are somewhat different and larger. It is a rather uncommon species 
here; I have never seen more than a few plants in any season, and in 
some years have failed to find it.—Lindley (Gen. & Sp. Orch., 351) 
mistook a very different species for this. 
23. Disa tenuifolia, Swartz, in Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Handl., 
vol. xxi. (1800), p. 214.—Glabrous, erect, 3-10 in. high; stem straight 
or flexuous, distantly clothed with short leafy sheaths ; leaves radical, 
many, setaceous, in a dense tuft, about 4 in. long; flowers mostly 
1 to 8, rarely 4-8, in a corymbose raceme, the pedicels widely spreading, 
bracts sheathing, acuminate, shorter than the ovary; side sepals ovate- 
falcate, acuminate, oblique at base, ascending, then spreading, about 
10 lines long ; odd sepal nearly flat, cordate, apiculate, shortly clawed, 
about as long as the side sepals; petals lanceolate, faleately incurved, 
acute ; lip setaceous, deflexed, usually curled at the apex, about 7 lines 
long; stigma and rostellum nearly erect, the latter with divaricate 
arms and a petaloid appendage free at the apex, three-fourths of the 
length of the horizontal, acute anther. Ophrys patens, Linneus, the 
younger, Suppl. (1781), 404; Serapias patens, Thunberg, Prodr. Pl. 
Cap. (1794), 8; Disa patens, Thunberg, Flora Cap. ed. 18238, p. 16, 
not of Swartz; Penthea patens, Lindley, Gen. Sp. Orch. (1888), p. 362. 
Has. Mountain-tops of the Cape Peninsula, from 800 ft. to 3550 ft.; fl. Dec. 
—Jan. Burchell, 656; Zeyher, 1580; Bolus, 3913.—Extends to Du Toit’s Kloof, 
and Swellendam (Burchell, 7055, 7338). 
This is one of the commonest of our Orchids, and has a wide 
vertical range extending to the very summit of Table Mountain. The 
colour of the flowers is a bright yellow. Large specimens with 6 to 
8 flowers are very handsome, but are rarely seen; the smaller forms 
are abundant enough, and stud the mountain-tops in the dry mid- 
summer with their gay golden stars. 
24. Disa patens, Swartz, in Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Handl., vol. xxi. 
(1800), p. 214, not of Thunberg.—Glabrous, erect, 4-7 in. high; stem 
covered with leaflike or sub-membranous, closely embracing sheaths, 
with acuminate, free, erect or spreading points; leaves radical, 
numerous, narrow-linear, acute, erect or laxly spreading, sheathing at 
base,1-1 in. long; raceme somewhat corymbose, loosely 3-9-flowered ; 
bracts lanceolate, acuminate, erect, about as long as the ovary; side 
sepals oblong, sub-obtuse, mucronulate below the apex, spreading, 
about 8 lines long; odd sepal subrotund, concave, apiculate, sub- 
sessile or unguiculate, erect, as long as the side sepals; petals linear- 
G 2 
