DISA. 



371 



D. PALUDOSUM, Bchh.f.—The only species of the genus in cultivation. It 

 is an erect growing plant with two ranked loaves, which are ligulate, acute, and 

 membranous in texture, pale 

 green, or with just a tinge of 

 bluish-metallic green ; scape 

 axillary, erect, bearing a 

 raceme of six to twelve flowers, 

 which measure about 1| inch 

 across, and are of a soft creamy- 

 white, dotted with purplish- \ '^k. \,^§ M J /^ V?-*"*^?^^^ '^^ 

 magenta ; sepals and petals 

 sub - equal, oblong - lanceolate, 

 somewhat fleshy in texture ; 

 lip cuneate - oblong, slightly 

 thickened towards the base, 

 where it is ornamented with 

 two prominent teeth, white 

 streaked and blotched with 

 purple. — Malacca, Borneo, Co- 

 chin-China. 



Fia.—GrifKtft. In. PI. Asiat., 

 iii. t. 323 ; Orchid Album, ix. 

 t. 422. 



Syn. — Gramm-atopJiyllum pa- 

 Iwdosum. Wailesia paludosa. 



DIPODIUM PAiUDOSUM. 



DiSA, Berg. 



{Tribe Ophrydeac, subtribe Satyrieac.) 



This is a fine and numerous tribe of terrestrial Orctids, which appear 

 to be peculiar to Africa and some of its islands, being found in various 

 parts of South Africa, in Abyssinia, Madagascar, &c., I), grandijlora, 

 the pride of Table Mountain, being not only the finest species hitherto 

 found in South Africa, but it is, at the present time, the grandest and 

 most showy terrestrial species we know in the whole world. These 

 plants are distinguished by having their stems clothed with numerous 

 lanceolate, sheathing leaves, and terminated by a spike of usually showy 

 blooms ; but even when the flowers are not brilliantly coloured, they are 

 exceedingly- curious and interesting, well deserving the attention of all 

 cultivators of these plants. The sepals are much larger than the petals, the 

 dorsal one erect, hooded and furnished with a spur ; the petals are small, 

 and the lip is small and linear acute, projecting forwards; column broad. 



Those we here describe are the finest of the species. There are 

 others in cultivation, but as they have not yet flowered, it is impossible 



24* 



