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DECEMBER, I9II.| THE ORCHID REVIEW. 369 
DISA LONGICORNU. 
FRoM a cultural standpoint the majority of the Disas are not regarded with 
much favor, but a few species, among which D. uniflora (grandiflora) is 
naturally pre-eminent, are certainly worthy of culture. Such are D. 
Harveiana, D. Draconis, D. venusta, and D. longicornu, of which the latter, 
by its exquisite colouring and unique form, compels universal admiration. 
It appears to have flowered for the first time in this country in 1895, 
in Sir Trevor Lawrence’s collection, when it received an Award of Merit. 
It is a native of the Cape, revelling in the moss-grown chinks of wet rocks 
on Table Mountain, at an altitude varying from 2,000 to 3,400 feet, where in 
the sunny months of November its large pale lilac-blue or ,French-grey, 
delicately-veined flowers, borne sing 
~ 
y on short slightly curved peduncles, 
Fig. 43. A BUNCH OF DIsA LoNGICORNU (half natural size). 
afford a pleasing spectacle. Thunberg, who discovered the species in 
January, 1773, relates the incident very graphically (Travels, Engl. ed. i. 
p. 220). ‘‘ Having got to the top,” he remarks, ‘‘we were recompensed for 
our trouble by a number of rare plants, especially of the Orchidee. 
Among these the Orchis grandiflora, or Disa uniflora, was 
conspicuous by its beautiful flowers; . . . the Serapias melaleuca was 
distinguished by its black and white flowers, the most uncommon in nature: 
and with great difficulty, and at the hazard of my life, I got for the first and 
last time the blue Disa longicornis, which is as beautiful as it is singular in 
its form. This last plant grew in one spot only, on a steep rock, and so 
high up, that in order to come at it, after we had clambered up the side of 
