Dec. 3, 1874] 



NA TURE 



91 



well des;ribed in Paterson's "Travels in Africa" (1789), 

 but otherwise very little kno .vn. Tlie present Governor 

 of the Cape, Sir Henry Barkly, has made great exertions 

 to procure plants for Kew, and two have now arrived in 

 this country, the largest being 8 ft. in height, but there is 

 some doubt whether ehher will eventually survive the 

 voyage. 



Aloe dichotoma appears to attain a height of about 

 30 ft., with a girt of about 12 ft.* Fig. I is from a photo- 

 graph by Mr. Chapman, and is reproduced from the Gar- 

 dener^ s C/iroiiicle. Young plants of the Aloe from Kaffraria, 

 alluded to above by Mrs. Barber, are now in cultivation at 

 Kew. Finding that the name by which it was known 

 belonged to another species, A. Zevheri, and that it was 

 undescribed, I renamed it Aloe Barbcrce, in honour of 

 Mrs. Barber, who first sent cuttings of it to this country. 

 Fig. 2 (which is also borrowed from the Gardene>-'s Chro- 

 nicle) is a copy of a rough sketch sent to this country by 

 the Rev, R. Baur, a Moravian miss'.onary, at present 



Fig. ^,—Aloe Bar-be. 



resident in Kaffraria. He speaks of it as growing in the 

 forests to the height of 30 ft., with a girt three feet above 

 the ground of about 16 ft. Its dimensions are therefore 

 about the same as those oi Aloe dichotoma. In Mr. Baur's 

 sketch the seed-vessels are represented, and he feared 

 that he had made them proportionately too large. 



An arborescent Aloe also exists in Natal. An account 

 of this from Mr. Baines, the well-known African tra- 

 veller, with a sketch of the spot where the plants 

 occurred, was sent to Dr. Hooker with a living branch 

 during last year. It was the subject of a communica- 

 tion made to the British Association at Bradford.f 

 The appearance of the branch of the Natal plant was 

 so different from that of the Kaffrarian, that I ven- 



* By an unfortunate misprint in the Gardener's Chrsitkle (copied by 

 Flii:i:iser and Hanbury, loc. cit.\ 30 ft. is given a^ the greatest girt. 



\ See Jouniaiof Botany, 1873, p. 348. The sketch is reproduced in the 

 Gardeners Chioifcle, loc. cit. 



tured to characterise it as a new species under the name 

 of Aloe Baincsii, on the ground that the leaves were 

 longer, not glaucoas, and not so completely crowded into 

 a terminal tuft. The fact of the leaves b;in j crowded into 

 a terminal rosette, or spaced down the stem, is found to 

 afford a character of even sectional value among the spe- 

 cies. I was therefore rather astonished to find that when 

 the Natal plant had fairly established itself, its rosette ot 

 leaves began to grow out. It is appirently only in old 

 plants that the leaves are crowded into rosettes. I do 

 not now doubt that the Kew plant of the Natal Aloe will 

 eventually assume quite the same appearance as plants 

 of the Kaffrarian one, with which I am now disposed to 

 belie\-e it to be identical. The name A. Bainesii must 

 therefore be merged as a synonym in A. Barber cc. The 

 only remaining discrepancy is with respect to the flowers . 

 Mr. Baines believes that those of his plant were orange or 

 scarlet. Those of the Kaffrarian plant (ample specimens 

 of which I have recently received through the kindness of 

 Sir Henry Barkly) appear, from a sketch made by Lady 

 Barkly, to be rose, passing into flesh-colour. 



The sketch of A. Barbcra from Natal (Fig. 3) is from 

 a drawing by Mr. Sanderson, of D'Urban. 



The stems of these Aloes must necessarily increase 

 "exogenously " in diameter. This, no doubt, takes place 

 in the same way as in the well-known Dragon Tree 

 {Draccena Draco). VV. T. Thiselton Dyer 



TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF 

 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA 



Y^T'E have received the Proceedings of the Royal 

 ••^ Society of Victoria for the years 1870, 1871, and 

 1S72, the issue of which has been delayed by the with- 

 drawal of the Government grant in 1 868, but through the 

 liberality of the present Government we are glad to hear 

 that the financial state of the Society enables the present 

 report to be printed. We have read with great pleasure 

 the addresses of the president, Mr. Ellery, showing that 

 scientific knowledge is gaining ground fast in Victoria. 

 Mr. Ellery tells us of the work at the Observatory, and 

 that the positions of 38,305 stars have been established 

 up to 1S70. In 1S6S the great reflector of 4 ft. diameter 

 was mounted, and Mr. Ellery says that although his 

 hopes were not fully realised, the telescope, if it does 

 not excel, equals every other of its size. Mr. Le Sueur 

 appears to have attacked i) Argus and its surround- 

 ing nebula as early as possible, and in February 

 1870 he informs the Society that the spectrum of 7; is 

 crossed by bright lines corresponding to C D E F and 

 one beyond F, probably Ily : the principal line of nitrogen 

 was also seen. He therefore concludes that hydrogen, 

 nitrogen, sodium, and magnesium are indicated. No 

 dark lines seem to have been seen with certainty, 

 although they were suspected. Mr. Le Sueur says : " We 

 seem driven to the conclusion that the star consists of 

 a solid nucleus, a gaseous envelope cooler than the 

 nucleus producing the dark lines, and a second envelope 

 hotter than the nucleus accounting for the bright ones." 

 We hope we shall not be quite driven to this conclusion 

 of a solid nucleus, which seems highly improbable. A 

 large influx of hot hydrogen or nitrogen from the nebula 

 or other source might be sufficient to reverse the dark 

 lines, and as this would heat the original photosphere 

 more intensely its absorption would be reduced, account- 

 ing for the reduction in intensity of the black lines. In 

 January 1874 we find that Mr. Macgeorge examined this 

 star and found no bright lines, and further, that a distinct 

 nebulosity surrounded the star, which in December 1S69 

 appeared, according to Le Sueur, on a black background. 

 Mr. Macgeorge furnishes several drawings of the nebula 

 surrounding t] which show a vast change in the shape of 

 the m^ss. In 1838 7; was involved in dense nebula, while 



