166 ORCHIDS OF THE CAPE PENINSULA. 
37. Disa melaleuca, Swartz, in Kongl. Vet. Acad. Handl., vol. xxi. 
(1800), p. 218; Harvey, Thes. Cap. i. (1859), 58, t. 84.—EHrect, 
glabrous, 4-12 in. high; scape straight, clothed with 5-6 leafy 
sheaths; leaves crowded at the base of the scape, 6-8, lanceolate 
acuminate, with involute margins, 2-8 in. long, passing into similar 
but shorter sheaths with free spreading points; flowers in a some- 
what crowded corymb 1-2 in. across, only slightly lengthening in 
fruit; bracts leaflike, shorter than the ovary; side sepals spreading, 
oblong, somewhat obtuse, with a sub-apical mucro, nearly equal-sided, 
about 7 lines long; odd sepal hooded, horizontal, compressed and 
keeled towards the apex, narrowed and adnate to the rostellum at the 
base, a little shorter than the sepals; petals oblong, lying inside the 
hood, incurved and toothed at the apex, not eared at the base; lip 
subulate, acute or acuminate, narrowed at the base; anther horizontal. 
Ophrys bivalvata, Linneeus, f., Suppl. (1781), 403. Serapias melaleuca, 
Thunberg, Prodr. Pl. Cap. (1794), 3. 
Has. Moist grassy places on Table Mountain, Muizenberg, &c.; common, 
1300 to 3300 ft.; fl. Dec., Burchell, 651; Bolus, 4208, &c.—-Extends eastward to 
Riversdale (Burchell, 6855), and northward to the Cederbergen. 
The side sepals are pure white, the hood slightly green-tinted, the 
petals and lip deep brown or nearly black, with green tips and bases. 
Very fragrant with the odour of ripening apples. This species and 
the next are very distinct from any other in the genus. I have seen 
one or two plants in which the sepals were longitudinally divided in 
colour, one half being white, the other purple; such plants approached 
D. atricapilla in appearance, and were probably natural hybrids; but 
the structure of the hood and side petals was that of this species. 
38. Disa atricapilla, Bolus, in Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. xix. (1882), 
p. 344.—Hrect, glabrous, 6-15 in, high; scape, leaves, and sheaths 
very similar to those of the preceding, but the leaves usually somewhat 
longer and more acuminate; flowers at first somewhat corymbose, 
finally lengthening (in specimens with fertilized ovaries) into a raceme, 
2-3 in. long; bracts leaflike, shorter than the flowers; pedicels 
3-5 lines long; side sepals spreading, ovate-oblong, emarginate, 
undulate, keeled beneath, unequal-sided, the back margin (next the 
lip) enlarged and recurved at the base, the apices upturned and 
incurved towards the odd sepal, about 4 in. long; odd sepal hori- 
zontal, hooded, expanded at the base, towards the apex compressed, 
acute, and produced into a flattened keel below, a little longer than the 
sepals; petals horizontal, oblong, very obtuse, toothed and incurved 
at the apex, which is covered with short hairs on the outside, eared 
and adnate to the column at the base, shorter than the hood; lip subu- 
late, acute, widened and toothed above the base, scarcely 5 lines 
