Plate 17. 

 aloe pienaakii. 

 Transvaal. 



Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae. 

 Aloe, Linn. ; Benth. et RooJc.f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 776. 



Aloe Pienaarii, Pole Evans in Trans. Roij. Soc. S. Afr. vol. v. p. 27, t. vi. vii. 



This species was first collected by Mr. P. J. Pienaar at 

 Smit's Drift, near Pietersburg, in January 1914, where it is 

 very common on and around the isolated granite kopjes, though 

 it also occurs in the open flat country. A number of plants 

 were obtained for the gardens of the Union Buildings at 

 Pretoria, where they have been established, and specimens 

 are also growing in the Aloe collection at the Division of 

 Botany Gardens, Pretoria. The species flowers from May 

 to July. 



Description : — Herb, succulent, stemless. Leaves 35-60 in 

 a dense rosette, 60-80 cm. long, 12-15 cm. broad at the base, 

 lanceolate-ensiform, acute, reddish-green or blueish, beset 

 along the margins with small chestnut-coloured (E.C.S.) 

 deltoid thorns 2 mm. long and 5-7 mm. apart. Inflorescence 

 2-3 from the same rosette, copiously panicled, erect, 1-25-1-65 

 metres high, with about 8 arcuate-erect branches subtended 

 at the base with deltoid-acuminate bracts ; racemes densely 

 flowered, 25-35 cm. long, cylindrical-conical. Bracts at first 

 densely imbricated, afterwards embracing the pedicels, 20 mm. 

 long, 11 mm. broad, broadly ovate-acuminate, acute, many- 

 nerved. Pedicels erect, spreading, 15-20 mm. long, greenish- 

 scarlet. Perianth 35-38 mm. long, somewhat 3-angled and 

 cylindrical, at first scarlet, greenish at the tips, becoming 

 citron-yellow (E.C.S.) when open; outer segments shorter 

 than the inner, free, acute ; inner slightly recurved at the 

 apex and more obtuse, and the lateral ones becoming com- 

 pressed towards the apex so as to close the mouth of the tube. 

 Stamens just exserted; filaments bright chalcedony-yellow 



