ALOE PIENAARII.

Transvaal.

Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae.

Aloe, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 776.

Aloe Pienaarii, Pole Evans in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. vol. v. p. 27, t. vi. vii.

This species was first collected by Mr. P. J. Pienaar at Smit’s Drift, near Pietersburg, in January 1914, where it is very common on and around the isolated granite kopjes, though it also occurs in the open flat country. A number of plants were obtained for the gardens of the Union Buildings at Pretoria, where they have been established, and specimens are also growing in the Aloe collection at the Division of Botany Gardens, Pretoria. The species flowers from May to July.

Description:—Herb, succulent, stemless. Leaves 35-60 in a dense rosette, 60-80 cm. long, 12-15 cm. broad at the base, lanceolate-ensiform, acute, reddish-green or blueish, beset along the margins with small chestnut-coloured (R.C.S.) deltoid thorns 2 mm. long and 5-7 mm. apart. Inflorescence 2-3 from the same rosette, copiously panicled, erect, 1·25-1·65 metres high, with about 8 arcuate-erect branches subtended at the base with deltoid-acuminate bracts; racemes densely flowered, 25-35 cm. long, cylindrical-conical. Bracts at first densely imbricated, afterwards embracing the pedicels, 20 mm. long, 11 mm. broad, broadly ovate-acuminate, acute, many-nerved. Pedicels erect, spreading, 15-20 mm. long, greenish-scarlet. Perianth 35-38 mm. long, somewhat 3-angled and cylindrical, at first scarlet, greenish at the tips, becoming citron-yellow (R.C.S.) when open; outer segments shorter than the inner, free, acute; inner slightly recurved at the apex and more obtuse, and the lateral ones becoming compressed towards the apex so as to close the mouth of the tube. Stamens just exserted; filaments bright chalcedony-yellow (R.C.S.); anthers grenadine-red (R.C.S.). Capsule enclosed within the dry perianth, 20 mm. long, cylindrical-trigonous, woody. Seeds 4-5 mm. long, irregular, narrowly winged.