Tad. 6981. 

 aloe hlldebrandtit. 



Native of East Tropical Africa. 



Nat. Ord. Liliaceje. — Tribe Alqine.e. 

 Genus AlOE, Linn. ; (Benin, et HooJc.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 776.) 



Aloe Hihlebrandtii ; caudice erecto elongato simplici, foliis lanceolatis dissitis 

 patulis parce maculatis dentibus inarginalibus parvis deltoideis, floribus in 

 paniculam amplam pedunculo brevi ancipiti ramis multis ascendentibus laxe 

 racemosis dispositis, pedicellis brevibus, bracteis parvis lanceolatis, periantbii 

 segmentis lineari-oblongis tubo cylindrico vix longioribus, genitalibus breviter 

 exsertis. 



Tliis very distinct new Aloe was discovered by the late 

 Dr. Hildebrandt in the course of those adventurous explora- 

 tions of East Tropical Africa* which extended from 1872 

 to 1877, and added very materially to our knowledge of 

 the botany of that part of the world. For horticultural 

 purposes it is one of the most desirable of all the Aloes, 

 from its compact growth and the unprecedented abundance 

 of its bright-coloured flowers. Its nearest allies are A, 

 cons'obrina, Salmdyck, and the little-known A. spicata, 

 Haworth, of the latter of which there is a good figure in 

 Bentley and Trimen's " Medicinal Plants," tab. 284. Dr. 

 Hildebrandt's explorations extended from Abyssinia and 

 Somali-land southward to the mountains of the interior oppo- 

 site Zanzibar, and we do not know the exact country whence 

 it came. Our drawing was made from a plant that flowered 

 at Kew for the first time last summer, which was received 

 in 1882 from the Botanic Garden of Berlin in 1882. 



Desce. Leafy stem simple, terete, erect, reaching a length 

 of one and a half or two feet, and a diameter of half or 

 three-quarters of an inch in our plant ; internodes half or 

 three-quarters of an inch long, conspicuously spotted with 

 white. Leaves laxly disposed, spreading, lanceolate, six to 

 ten inches long, one and a half or two inches broad at the 



* For a detailed account of Dr. Hildebrandt's explorations reference may be made 

 to a translation by Mr. Geo. Murray of a paper bj' Herr Kurtz, in Trimen's" Journal 

 of Botany " for 1879, p. 8G. 



feb. 1st, 1888. 



