10 



PLATE 258. 



Aloe natalensis, Wood & Evans (Report Natal Botanic Gardens (1900), p. 9 ; 



Jour. Bot. (1901), p. 170). 

 Natural Urder, LiLiAOBiE. 



A shrubby plant, 12 to 15 feet high with a diameter of 12 to 15 feet, copiously 

 and repeatedly branching from the very base, each branchlet ending in a dense 

 rosette of leaves; occasionally producing adventitious roots from the lower- 

 branches. Leaves linear-lanceolate, falcate, acute, subglaucous, neither spotted 

 nor lined, margined with deltoid, curved prickles; very succulent and brittle, 18 

 to 30 inches long, 1^ to 2^ inches wide, |^ to f inch thick at base; prickles 1 line 

 long, J to f inch apart Peduncles simple, 18 to 24 inches long; bracts broadly 

 obovate, ^ inch long and wide, veined. Racemes densely many flowered at apex, 

 5 to 10 inches long, spreading to 3 inches wide. Pedicels erecto-patent, 1 to \^ 

 inch long. Perianth red, tipped with dull green, cylindrical or obscurely 3-lobed, 

 1|^ to If inch long, the three outer segments coloured, three inner ones white, with 

 ■orange central band, and green tip. Stamens 6, hypogynous, finally slightly 

 exserted, equal; filaments flattened, yellow-green; anthers linear-oblong, 2-celled, 

 basifixed, erect. Ovary subcylindrical, 6-lined, sessile, 3-celled, many ovuled; 

 style slender, a little longer than stamens, truncate. Capsule oblong, sub-trigonous, 

 3-celled, loculicidally 3-valved, many seeded. 



Habitat : Natal : Midlands, 800 to 3,000 feet alt, usually in rocky situations; 

 Inanda and Noodsberg, Wood, cultivated in Natal Botanic Gardens, Wood 

 No. 4342. 



A large genus including more than 100 species, the greater part of which are 

 African. The Flora Capensis, Vol. VI. enumerates 70 species as South African, 

 and there are also ten or more in Tropical Africa, the remainder being found in 

 Madagascar, Socotra, India, China, and Mediterranean region. It is from several 

 species of this genus that the drug known as Aloes is obtained, the greater part, if 

 not all that has been sent from Natal having been obtained from Aloeft-rux, but 

 a small quantity of excellent quality was sent from Natal some years a?o the 

 origin of which is at prcent unknown, nor is it quite certain that the plant which 

 yielded it is a native of Natal ; it has been surmised that it may possibly have been 

 brought from Zululand, but the matter is still in doubt. The species above des- 

 cribed is by far the handsomest of the Natal sp 'cies, and differs in habit from any 

 •other species known to us or described in the Flora Capensis, and it certainly does 

 not contain the drug in ^ny appreciable quantity. 



Fig. 1, flower with three perianth segments and one stamen removed; 

 *nlarged. 



