PTERYGODIUM. 185 
bracts lanceolate, acute, erect, nearly as long as the flowers ; odd sepal 
obovate, subgaleate, with a sharp reflexed point; side sepals ovate, 
acuminate, spreading behind the hood; petals nearly semiorbicular, 
concave, margin a little waved; limb of the lip small, rhomboidal, 
acuminate, the larger appendage somewhat fiddle-shaped, the upper 
and narrower part (like the ‘“handle’’) bent forward at its apex, and 
beset on the margin and face with six rows of teeth; the viscid dise 
of the pollinary gland facing the back of the flower; stigma horse- 
shoe-shaped. Ker, in Journ. Sci. R. Inst., vol. vi. (1819), t.1i., f. 3. 
Orchidi affinis flore luteo &c. Buxbaum, Cent., vol. ii. (1729), p. 12, 
t. 21. Ophrys catholica, Linneeus, Sp. Plant., ed. 2 (17638), 1344. 
Ophrys alaris, Linnzeus, the younger, Suppl. (1781), 404. 
Has. Moist places on the Cape Flats, 50 to 100 ft., common; more rarely on 
the lower mountain sides up to 800 ft., fl. Aug.—Sept., Zeyher, 3941, 3943; Herb. 
Norm. Austr.-Afr., 174.—Extends eastward to Genadendal and Port Elizabeth. 
Flowers pale sulphur-yellow, or very rarely the petals and lip 
orange-red, with a peculiar and not agreeable scent. This is one of 
the commonest of our orchids, and very regular in its appearance. 
There is little difficulty in distinguishing it in a living state, the only 
species which it resembles in external appearance being the one next 
described. It was probably introduced into Europe prior to 1729, 
Buxbaum’s poor figure being apparently drawn from the living plant. 
3. Pterygodium acutifolium, Lindley, Gen. & Sp. Orch. (1888), 
p. 866.—Six to twelve inches high ; stem usually robust, leafy ; leaves 
about 2, oblong, mostly acuminate, more rarely obtuse and apiculate, 
the lower 3-9 in. long, the upper distant and smaller, succeeded by 
2-3 similar, distant, shorter, leaf-like sheaths; raceme 4—10-flowered, 
often close, bracts ovate, acuminate, a little longer than the ovary ; 
perianth almost exactly as in the preceding species, but a little larger, 
and the appendage of the lip less distinctly fiddle-shaped, tapering 
more gradually towards the apex, which is traversed by two furrows 
and quite entire ; arms of the rostellum ascending ; stigma somewhat 
crescent-shaped. 
Has. Moist places on the mountain-tops, Muizenberg, 1400 ft., fl. Nov. ; Table 
Mt., up to 3500 ft., fl. Dec., Bolus, 4334 ; Herb. Norm. Austr.-Afr., 175.—Extends to 
Groene Kloof and Tulbagh. Zeyher, 1572; also 1573, ex parte. 
The colour of the flowers is a deep bright golden yellow ; this, and 
its more robust habit, more numerous and larger flowers, and differently 
shaped appendage to the lip, serve to distinguish it from P. catholicum, 
to which it is otherwise closely allied, and from the larger specimens 
of which it is not always easy, when in a dried state, to separate it. 
On the Peninsula, at least, the two species are divided by a considerable 
interval in the flowering period, and by a different zone of elevation. 
