PHANEROGAMS— PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 291 



through tropical Africa and the islands of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. 

 Both the Socotran species are endemic. 



1. A. Perryi, Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. xviii. (1881), 161, and in Bot. 

 Mag. t. 6596. 



Caulescens ; foliis 12-20 dense rosulatis lauceolatis acuminafcis subpedalibus a basi ad apiceni 

 sensim angustatis glauco-viridibus rubrotinctis facie canaliculars dentibus marginalibus 

 deltoideo-cuspidatis parvis pallide brunneis ; pedunculo deorsum applanato ; racemis 1-3 

 oblongo-cylindricis ; pedicellis flore 3-4-plo brevioribus ; bracteis minutis lanceolato- 

 deltoideis ; periantbii rubro-lutei pollicaris segmentis oblongis tubo cylindrico triplo- 

 brevioribus ; genitalibus demum breviter exsertis. 



Caulis simplex circa pedalis 1-2 poll. diam. Folia §-1 ped. longa ad basin 2^-3 poll, lata 

 apiee acuminata immaculata obscure verticalifcer lineata supra basin canaliculata medio 

 '6 — 3 P ^- crassa dentibus marginalibus crebris -^ poll, longis remotis intervallis 1 poll, 

 longis apice corneis, infimis exceptis abscendentibus. Inflorescentia 1^—2 ped. longa 

 rarius simplex plerumque ramis tribus densifloris 3-6 poll, longis 2 poll, diam.; pedunc- 

 ulus communis vix pedalis purpureo-tinctus ; pedieelli rubri \—^ poll, longi infimi cernui ; 

 bractese pedicellis subsecpuilongse. Perianthium |~1 poll, longum rubrum in juventute 

 apicaliter virido-tinctum proventu flavum tubo ad medium subconstricto. Capsula 

 oblonga f poll, longa subglauca. 



Nom. Vern. Tayef (Wellst., B.C.S.). 



Socotra. In various parts of the island. B.C.S. n. 473. Schweinf. n. 744. 

 Perry. Collins. 



Distrib. Endemic. 



A plant of very great interest, being the source of one of the kinds of aloes. 

 Mr Baker thus writes of it : — " It is said that aloes was known to the Greeks 

 as a product of the island of Socotra as early as the fourth century before the 

 Christian era ; and yet until very recently no material has been obtained from 

 which the botanical characters of the plant which yields the drug could be 

 settled. In the absence of any precise information on the subject, botanists 

 and pharmacists have supposed that the plant that furnished it was an Aloe 

 figured in 1697 by Commelinus from the Medical Garden at Amsterdam under 

 the name of ' Aloe Succotrina Angustifolia Spinosa flore purpureo,' — a species 

 which was called Aloe vera by Philip Miller, and has been characterised by 

 Lanjarck and several later authors under the name of Aloe succotrina. By the 

 researches of Mr Bolus this plant has now been ascertained to be really a 

 native of the Cape of Good Hope, and the Socotra Aloe proves to be a species 

 confined to that island, closely allied in general liabit to the well-known 

 Barbadoes Aloe {Aloe vera, Linn., A. barbadensis, Miller, A. vulgaris, Lamk.), 

 but differing in its shorter leaves and especially in its flowers, which have a 

 tube much longer than the segments and are arranged in looser racemes on 

 longer pedicels." 



The plant was first brought to this country by Wykeham Perry in 1878, 



