Plate 55. ALOE striata. Cape Province.

Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae.

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

Aloe striata, Haw. in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. vii. p. 18; Syn. p. 81; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 311.

This is the well-known “Coral Aloe” of South Africa. It is typical of both the Upper and Lower Karroo regions and also of the Namaqualand region. The species is generally found on dry rocky slopes, and the plants assume a subdecumbent position, very rarely growing erect. It is the only South African species of Aloe which bears leaves without prickly teeth. In the dry summer season the leaves lose their bluish-grey colour and become a copper-red, which gives the plants a very characteristic appearance in the veld. A large number of hybrids have been raised by crossing this species with others belonging to the Saponaria group, and a hybrid, described as Aloe Lynchii, was obtained between this and Gasteria verrucosa.

The late Prof. MacOwan states that sun-birds (Nectarineae) are the pollinating agents of Aloe striata and some other species of Aloe, and if the birds are kept away by covering the inflorescence with wire netting, few or no capsules are produced.

Our specimen was collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans at Dassie Deur near Port Elizabeth, and flowered in the garden of the Division of Botany, Pretoria, in August.

Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium.

Description:—Stem underground. Leaves about 13, crowded in a basal rosette, up to 30 cm. long, 6-11·5 cm. broad, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or the inner ovate, acuminate, flat, bluish-grey, glaucous, faintly many-nerved, with pink margins. Peduncle about 24 cm. long, branched above; at the base flat on one side, convex on the other; in the upper portion semiterete. Inflorescence a panicle of racemes, the ultimate racemes 6-9 cm. long, lax. Bracts subtending the racemes about 1 cm. long, membranous, ovate, acuminate. Floral bracts 3 mm. long, ovate, acuminate, acute, membranous. Pedicels about 1 cm. long, spreading. Flowers more or less pendulous. Perianth-tube in mature flowers 2 cm. long, globose at the base, then slightly constricted, then gradually widening into a tube 6 mm. in diameter at the throat; lobes about 3 mm. long, ovate, rounded at the apex. Stamens included or slightly exserted; filaments attached at the base of the perianth-tube, 1·7 cm. long; anthers about 1 mm. long. Ovary 5 mm. long, oblong; style 1·7 cm. long, terete; stigma faintly 3-lobed. Immature fruit 2 cm. long, 1·1 cm. in diameter, ellipsoid, subtrigonous.

Plate 55.—Fig. 1, plant showing characteristic habit; Fig. 2, transverse section of leaf; Fig. 3, flower; Fig. 4, bract; Fig. 5, stamen; Fig. 6, young fruit.

F.P.S.A., 1922.

S. Gower del.