DISPERIS. 175 
South-African Orchids. It is clearly intermediate between the sub- 
tribes Disem and Coryciem ; yet if all the species should be found to 
have the same general structure as the ten or twelve which I have 
examined, it may hereafter be regarded as a distinct subtribe. Unlike 
the Corycie®, its stigma usually stands exposed in front of the flower, 
and is only occasionally lateral or separated into two distinct stigmas. 
In so far it approaches the subtribe Disem, and is indeed more like 
that group in the structure of its perianth than any other Corycioid 
genus. The two subtribes are connected through the present genus 
and Brownleea, in which, as in Disperis, the side petals adhere to the 
margins of the odd sepal, and the lip has a tendency to ascend in 
front of the column. The most striking characteristics of Disperis lie 
in the prominent cartilaginous arms of its rostellum; in the peculiar 
sacs in the side sepals present in most species, which appear to have 
been formed to accommodate the development of these rostellary 
arms, and over which the sacs exactly fit in estivation ; and in the 
extraordinary diversities in the shape of the lip. The latter alone 
afford excellent specific distinctions, although they are often very 
difficult of expression by written descriptions. 
There are many species of this genus with which I am un- 
acquainted in the living state, and of which a study from dried speci- 
mens cannot be entirely satisfactory. At present, therefore, no 
arrangement of the genus is proposed. 
Distrisution.—About 31 species have been described, of which 
only 5 have been found on the Peninsula. Of the rest 2 are chiefly 
western; 11 are eastern, reaching to Port Natal; 4 belong to the 
Mascarene Islands; 4 to Abyssinia; 2 to the Kilimanjaro Region; 
and one each to Angola, the Comoro Islands, and Southern India 
(with Ceylon). 
[A key to the species is omitted: it would be merely a repetition 
of the descriptions of the lip; and the species being few in number 
the student is referred to them.] 
1. Disperis capensis, Swartz in Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Handl., vol. 
xxl. (1800), p. 220, tab. i., fig. F.—Hrect, slender, 6-16 in. high; 
stem slightly flexuous, distantly 2-leaved, glabrous above, clothed with 
spreading hairs on its lower portion; leaves linear, acuminate, 
widening towards the sheathing base, nerved, 2-4 in. long; flower 
solitary; odd sepal somewhat oblong, broad and bilobed above, then 
suddenly contracted into a setaceous point as long as the limb, the 
whole 10-12 lines long; the cohering petals oblong, very obtuse, with 
a setaceous point near the apex 2 lines long, the whole about 5 lines 
long, the mouth of the galea nearly orbicular, about } in. in diameter ; 
