Compilation
Disa cylindrica

Disa bracteata, Sw. in Vet. Acad. Handl. Stockh. 1800, 211, is a mystery. It was quoted as “C. b. sp. Sparrman,” and characterised as “galea obtusa, calcare oblongo; labello lineari apice latiore; spica cylindrica, bracteis erectis floribus longioribus.” A sheet kindly lent by the authorities at Stockholm contains three specimens, two of which belong to a ticket from an unknown collector, inscribed “43. Im Sande zwischen den gefaulagen [?] auf der Platte des Tafelberges. Jan. 24–24.” This presumably means 1824, in which case it cannot be Swartz's type. The other specimen is Zeyher, 3926, which is also at Kew. All three are Disa cylindrica, Sw., as here understood. The plant figured as D. bracteata, Sw., in the Botanical Register, t. 324, is apparently a lax-flowered form of the same; but Robert Brown's wild specimens there alluded to belong to Monadenia micrantha, Lindl., and are preserved at the British Museum, labelled by Brown himself as “ Disa bracteata, Sw.” The description alluded to in Bot. Reg. t. 324 is also preserved (but not the actual specimen), and it shows that Brown at first described this plant as a new species, but afterwards thought that it agreed “too closely to justify a separation,” an opinion in which I cannot concur. Bolus also thought D. bracteata, Sw., might be a Monadenia, which is quite borne out by the long bracts. I believe it was M. multiflora, Lindl., with which the phrase “calcare oblongo, labello lineari apice latiore” is fully in agreement. It does not describe the cylindrical spur and linear lip of M. micrantha, Lindl.