PLATE 338. 



ALOE MINIMA, Baker. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VI, p. 305.) 

 Natural Order, LILIA.OE.S. 



Stem none. Leaves many (20 to 35) in a dense sessile rosette, spreading 

 laterally and often curved, narrowly linear, deeply channelled down the face, 

 reaching to C inches long, 1 to 1^ line broad at base, margins with numerous small 

 whitish spines, which are spreading or more commonly reflexed, upper surface 

 green, unspotted, lower with a few dull white elongated spots in the lower third, 

 green upwards. Inflorescence racemose ; peduncles 10 to 30 inches long florifer- 

 ous in the upper portion, the lower third with a few distant depauperated leaves 

 reaching to 8 lines long, the middle with a few empty bracts, the upper third 

 floriferous, bracts long acuminate from a broad base, 3-veined, a little shorter than 

 the pedicels; pedicels, lower recurved, upper erect, 3 lines long. Perianth very 

 pale red, straight, tube cylindrical, lobes 6, erect, 4 lines long, concave, much im- 

 bricated; outer ones greenish at apex, 3-nerved, inner strongly 1 -nerved. Stamens 

 6, hypogynous, included ; anthers 2-celled, dorsifixed, versatile, orange. Ovary 

 superior, sessile, oblong-trigonous, 3-celled, many ovuled ; style as long as the 

 stamens, stigma minute. Capsule oblong, glabrous, bluntly trigonous, 3-celled 

 loculicidally 3-valved, many seeded. Seeds triquetrous, winged, dark coloured. 



Habitat; NATAL: South Downs, 4-5000 feet alt, solitary among grass, Evans, 

 No. 409 ; Inanda, 1800 feet alt, March, Wood, No. 7597; near Malvern, June, Col 

 Bowker (Wood, No. 4714) ; Zululand, Wylie. 



Drawn and described from specimens brought from Inkandhla, Zululand, 

 4-5000 feet alt, by Mr. Wylie and cultivated in Natal Botanic Gardens, Durban. 



This is the smallest species of Aloe known to us ; it has a very wide range in 

 the colony, as will be seen by the authorities above quoted ; it apparently varies 

 much in size, the peduncle in the Zululand specimens, and also as shown in the 

 Botanic Gardens in plants brought from the same locality, only reached 10 inches 

 in height, while the Malvern specimen reached to 20 inches. It also varies much 

 in the number of leaves ; in the Flora Capensis it is described as having " about a 

 dozen" in the Malvern and Inanda specimens less than that number, while in the 

 Zululand specimens it is as stated in the text, viz., 20 to 35 ; the spots on the 

 leaves are few and dull, and quite confined to the lower portion of the leaf ; the 

 raceme in the Zululand specimen is not subcapitate, while in the Malvern specimen 

 it approaches to that form. The natives have no distinct name for the plant and 

 do not use it in any way. 



Fig. 1, bract; 2, flower; 3, inner perianth lobe; 4, ovary, style and stigma; 5, 

 stamen ; 6, cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



