Ahe. 33 



On some South African species of Aloe, with special reference to 

 those represented in the Herbarium of the Albany Museum 

 (with descriptions of two new species).— By Dr. S. SchoNLAND, 

 Hon. M.A. Oxon. 



Our knowledge of the South African species of Aloe is to a 

 large extent based on the plants cultivated in European gardens. 

 In looking ov^er Mr. J. G. Baker's monograph of them in the Flora 

 Capensis (Vol. VI, p. 302), which was only published a few yeais 

 ago, we find that of almost exactly half the number of species no 

 single locality is mentioned, and that as regards these no reference 

 is made to material grown ii;i South Africa. This state of affairs is 

 largely due to the fact that, to travelling collectors especially, they 

 are rather troublesome to preserve. I maj', however, mention 

 that they can be very well preserved for the Herbarium if they 

 are soaked for a few days in a strong solution of Cooper's sheep- 

 dip and pressed in the ordinary fashion with frequent changes of 

 paper. As is the case with other succulents, they naturally lose 

 many of their characteristic features in drying, and to study them 

 thoroughly one must have recourse to growing specimens and 

 observe them for years. This I have been able to do with a 

 number of species in my private collection, which has now been 

 transferred to the Museum grounds, where they are all thriving in 

 the open to the numb 3r of nearly 40 species, and I trust that one of 

 the results of this paper will be, that all those interested in Botany 

 in Sjuth Africa will ai^ist m3 in miking this collection as cam- 

 plete as possible. In this way I hope to greatly enlarge our at 

 present lamentably deficient knowledge of the geographical dis- 

 tribution of these plants which form such an important feature of 

 the Flora of South Africa, l)ut I hope also to define the limits of 

 the species better than it was hitherto possible, and lastly there is 

 no doubt that we shall find that a large number of species are 

 hitherto undes^ribed. 



The Aloes cultivated in European gardens are grown under such 

 unnatural conditions that many of them present features which 



