Plate 164.
Reading edition
ALOE Chabaudii. Rhodesia. Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae. Aloe, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 776.
Aloe Chabaudii, Schonl. in Gard. Chron. 1905, p. 162.
Dr. Schonland in his description of this Aloe in the Gardeners’ Chronicle states that it is allied to A. striata, and a reference to our Plate 55 will show the similarity of the flowers in the two species. The specimens from which the original description was prepared were collected by Mr. J. M. Brown in Rhodesia, but the exact locality is not known. They were grown and flowered by Mr. J. A. Chabaud of Port Elizabeth. The plant is erect with a short stem, and has not the reclining habit of A. striata. It is very suitable for large rockeries, and makes an effective display when in flower.
Our plate was prepared from specimens grown at the Division of Botany, Pretoria.
Description:—Acaulescent or almost so. Leaves 18 to 24, forming an irregular rosette, up to 45 cm. long and 15 cm. broad near the base, about 2 cm. thick, ovate-lanceolate, unspotted, somewhat glaucous; upper surface indistinctly striate, nearly flat, except near the apex, where it is channelled; lower surface slightly convex; margin with a narrow horny border; prickles 1·5 mm. long or even smaller, at first flesh-coloured, brown in older leaves, straight or (especially in the upper portion of the leaf) curved forward, about 1·5 cm. apart, interspaces straight. Inflorescence a loose panicle, with squarrose ascending branches 60 to 80 cm. in height, about 45 cm. in diameter; racemes lax, floriferous portion 15 to 20 cm. long; bracts deltoid, acuminate, membranous, lowest about 6 mm. long, upper gradually smaller; pedicels spreading, lowest 2 cm. long, upper only slightly smaller; perianth 3·5 cm. long, slightly curved, distinctly obconical at the base, swollen round the ovary, with three decided oblong indentations above it (in a line with the inner segments); outer segments pale brick-red with nearly white wings near the apex, inner with red median line and pale wings, which are yellowish at the apex; tube of corolla nearly two-thirds its length; filaments yellow, slightly exceeding the perianth in length, anthers pale terra-cotta; ovary broadly oblong, green; style yellow, not exserted; stigma very small, capitate (S. Schonland).
Plate 164.—Fig. 1, median longitudinal section of flower; Fig. 2, bract; Fig. 3, anther; Fig. 4, apex of style.
F.P.S.A., 1925.
