Plate 187.
Reading edition
ALOE ARBORESCENS var. FRUTESCENS. Transvaal. Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae. Aloe, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 776.
Aloe arborescens, Miller, Gard. Chron. ed. viii. No. 3; var. frutescens, Bkr. Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 322.
This Aloe is widely distributed along the eastern mountain range and is known to extend northwards as far as the Victoria Falls. The many stems which grow together give the plant a bush-like appearance which makes a very effective display in a large rockery, and it has the advantage over many other species of the genus in that the inflorescence is not nipped by a severe frost. The species also lends itself admirably to growing on rough stone pillars forming an entrance to a drive.
Our specimen was collected on the hills near Haenertsburg on the Drakensbergen in June 1914, and cultivated at the Division of Botany, Pretoria.
Description:—An arborescent branched shrub. Leaves up to 0·5 m. long, about 4 cm. broad at the base, gradually tapering to the apex, almost flat on the upper surface, convex on the lower surface, with ovate somewhat incurved teeth 1 cm. apart below, about 1·3 cm. apart above, glabrous. Inflorescence solitary or 2-3 from each rosette of leaves, unbranched. Peduncle 7 mm. in diameter, cylindric with scattered membranous bracts. Floral-bracts membranous, 1·3 cm. long, 9 mm. broad, oblong, with straight margins, distinctly veined. Pedicels 2 cm. long, elongating in the old flowers. Raceme dense, up to 22 cm. long. Young flowers erect-spreading, cylindric, with a subacute apex; old flowers pendulous. Perianth (in open flowers) 3·2 cm. long; outer segments reddish, 5 mm. broad, obtuse; inner segments white, 9 mm. broad, with a distinct mid-rib, reddish below, greenish above, obtuse. Stamens projecting. Ovary 8 mm. long, cylindric; style 3·2 cm. long, cylindric; stigma minute. (National Herb., Pretoria, No. 2904.)
Plate 187.—Fig. 1, young and adult flowers; Fig. 2, median longitudinal section of a flower; Fig. 3, pistil; Fig. 4, bract.
F.P.S.A., 1925.
