rarely rather lax ; bracts lanceolate, setaceously cuspidate, ex- 

 ceeding^ the flowers ; flowers amon^ the smaller ones in the genus ; 

 lateral sepals spreading-ascending ovate-lanceolate acute, seta- 

 ceously aristate below the apex, with the awn about 0*8 cm. long ; 

 odd sepal anticous, somewhat galeate-cucullate, mouth broadly 

 ovate, setaceously acuminate below the obtuse apex, as long as 

 the lateral sepals, produced into a deflexed spur, bilobulate at the 

 apex, O'S cm. long ; petals erect, obliquely oblong, unequally 

 bilobed at the apex, dilated at the base in front into an obtuse 

 lobe, 0''6 cm. long ; lip spreading-deflexed subulate acute or 

 acuminate, 0'5 cm. long ; rostellum 81obed, the lateral lobes 

 obscure or minute, the intermediate much larger triangular; anther 

 horizontal; stigma somewhat excavate. 



Described from several living and dried specimens. 



This is an extremely interesting and rare species, quite unlike 

 any other species of South African Orchid known to me. Only 

 three collections are known ; the first by Berg, a Cape Town 

 apothecary and collector, in 1H16 ; the second by Dr. R. Schlechter 

 in IKOG ; the third by Miss H. M. L. Kensit in 1904. It was long 

 one of the most eagerly sought for of Orchids in S. Africa, being 

 quite unknown save for Reichenbach's description, drawn solely 

 from dried specimens. Great, therefore, was our pleasure when 

 excellent living specimens were found sufficiently near to us so 

 that a drawing could at once be made from the life. Reichenbach 

 says that the plant involuntarily reminded him of Telipogon. I 

 have here no access to any figure of this genus. But as it is 

 described as belonging to the tribe Vandeai — as being epiphytical 

 in its habit, whereas our plant is clearly terrestrial and Ophrydeous ; 

 as moreover Telipogon inhabits the Andes of Columbia and Peru, 

 Reichenbach must have referred solely to an external resemblance, 

 and any structural affinity must be extremely improbable. I place 

 this plant in the section of Disa known as Orthocarpa. 



