VJ PREFACE. 



kindly sent me excellent living specimens of several rare species 

 of Orchids, such as Disa excclsa, Swartz, long lost to science, 

 first collected by Thunberg about 1773, and scarcely known 

 since ; also of Disa Forficaria iiiilii. (see Vol. I. of this work, 

 Tab. 87), first found by Dn'ge in Du Toit's Kloof, and only 

 once since, by Zeyher, according to Bonder's determination. 

 It was first published by Lindley, who regarded it as a 

 distinct genus, as Forficaria graminifolia, Gen. & Sp. Orch. 

 1838), 362. 



To Mr. N. S. PiLLANS, of Rosebank, near Cape Town, a 

 very successful cultivator, especially of succulent plants, I am 

 indebted for frequent assistance in procuring for me living 

 specimens of Orchids for the purpose of figuring. His name 

 is commemorated under Tab. 27. 



Last, but not the least, I must express my gratitude to 

 Miss H. M. L. Kensit, B.A., for several years my devoted 

 and very capable helper in botanical and all other work, and a 

 frequent companion in botanical excursions. Her re-discovery, 

 during a violent rain-storm, of Disa Telipogonis Reichenbach f., 

 on the summit of Table Mountain, was a great delight to us, 

 and formed quite a red-letter day in our experience. This 

 small Orchid had been practically lost for seventy years, and I 

 hope that its modest size and the quiet colour of its flowers 

 may now save it from the extinction by ruthless flower- 

 gatherers which has overtaken so many other flowers. 



I fear I may seem to have been too prolix in the foregoing 



remarks. I would plead in excuse that the feelings of those 



who are colonists and explorers of the natural history of a new 



country are not strictly limited to scientific delights, but are 



closely united with a certain pride and interest in the discovery 



of the numerous new forms of nature in the country of their 



loving adoption. 



H. B. 



Kenilworth, 



Near Cape Town. 



April, 1911. 



