Plate 55. 



aloe striata. 



Cape Province. 



Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae. 

 Aloe, Linn.; Benth. et Hook./. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 776. 



Aloe striata, Haw. in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. vii. p. 18 ; Sijn. p. 81 ; 

 Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 311. 



This is the well-known " Coral Aloe " of South Africa. It 

 is typical of both the Upper and Lower Karroo regions and 

 also of the Namaqualand region. The species is generally 

 found on dry rocky slopes, and the plants assume a sub- 

 decumbent position, very rarely growing erect. It is the only 

 South African species of Aloe which bears leaves without 

 prickly teeth. In the dry summer season the leaves lose their 

 bluish-grey colour and become a copper-red, which gives the 

 plants a very characteristic appearance in the veld. A large 

 number of hybrids have been raised by crossing this species 

 with others belonging to the Saponaria group, and a hybrid, 

 described as Aloe Lynchii, was obtained between this and 

 Gasteria verrucosa. 



The late Prof. MacOwan states that sun-birds (Nectar ineae) 

 are the pollinating agents of Aloe striata and some other 

 species of Aloe, and if the birds are kept away by covering 

 the inflorescence with wire netting, few or no capsules are 

 produced. 



Our specimen was collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans at 

 Dassie Deur near Port Elizabeth, and flowered in the garden 

 of the Division of Botany, Pretoria, in August. 



Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium. 



Description : — Stem underground. Leaves about 13, 

 crowded in a basal rosette, up to 30 cm. long, 6-11*5 cm. 

 broad, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or the inner ovate, acu- 

 minate, flat, bluish-grey, glaucous, faintly many-nerved, with 

 pink margins. Peduncle about 24 cm. long, branched above ; 

 at the base flat on one side, convex on the other ; in the upper 



