* 
Tas. 6863. 
ALOE HETERACANTHA, 
Native country unknown. 
Nat. Ord. Littace2.—Tribe ALOINER. 
Genus Atog, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 776.) 
ALOE heteracantha ; caule brevissimo simplici, foliis 15-30 dense rosulatis lanceo- 
latis pedalibus obscure verticaliter lineatis parce irregulariter albo maculatis 
facie seepe lineis 2 elevatis verticalibus percursis margine inermibus vel aculeis 
paucis inzequalibus deltoideis armatis, floribus racemoso-paniculatis, pedunculo 
valido ancipiti, racemis densis cylindricis, pedicellis flore 2-3-plo brevioribus, 
bracteis ovatis pedicello brevioribus, perianthio cylindrico splendide rubro 
tubo brevissimo, genitalibus perianthio equilongis. 
A. heteracantha, Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 161. 
This is an Aloe which we have had for a long time at 
Kew, but have never before flowered, and of which the 
flowers have never been described. Its history is not 
clearly known, but it is believed to have been brought from 
the Jardin des Plantes at Paris many years ago by Mr. 
Cooper. It has been thought that it might be identical 
with the Aloe inermis of Forskahl, an inhabitant of Arabia 
Felix, but of this no specimens are known to exist, and the 
description is extremely incomplete. Mr. Brown tells me 
that it has also been flowered at Reigate in the open air by 
Mr. Cooper, and that when so grown the leaves are much 
smaller than in our plant, and strongly tinted with red- 
brown. Our plant was grown under a subtropical tempera- 
ture, and the drawing was made in June, 1885. 
Drsor. Stem simple, very short. Leaves fifteen to thirty 
in a dense rosette, ascending, lanceolate, half to one foot 
long, one and a half to two and a half inches broad low 
down, narrowed gradually to the concave apex, green or in 
exposure tinted with red-brown, obscurely vertically lineate 
towards the base, often with a few irregular small whitish 
Spots, and often marked down the face with one or two 
faint raised vertical ribs, usually furnished with a few ir- 
regular spreading deltoid prickles on the margin. Inflores- 
MARCH Ist, 1886. 
