152 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ July, 
natural effect was obtained by plunging pots containing Hyacinths, Crocuses, and 
Narcissi near the margins of the walks. Glimpses of these were obtained from 
different points of sight, and as seen beneath the gracefully arching fem-fronds 
they told well, and were much admired by the few favoured visitors who were 
allowed to see them. This plant is to the floor of a conservatory or fernery 
what Ficus stipulata {F, repens of gardens) is to the rockwork and walls ; and 
with these two plants judiciously used, any bare place in plant-houses may be 
made fresh and interesting in a comparatively short time and at little expense.— 
F. W. Burbidge. 
ALOE BAINESIL 
^BOM a very interesting account of the Tree Aloes of South Africa, 
recently published by Professor Dyer, in the Gardeners' Chronicle^ 1874, 
567 (whence, also, our figure, reduced from a much larger illustration, is 
derived), it appears that at least four species occur on that continent, 
n2i-mQ\y, Aloe dichotoma; an undetermined species from Damaraland ; the Aloe 
Bainesiiy represented in our figure; and the Oaffrarian Aloe Barheroe. These 
attain from 30 ft. to 60 ft. in height, and all have much the habit and aspect of 
that here represented. 
Aloe Bainesii is now growing at Kew, and is a most remarkable “-plant. It 
has tufts of glaucous-green distantly spiny leaves, a foot long, and two inches 
broad, crowded at the ends of its branches, and was discovered by Mr. Baines, 
after whom it is named, in the northern part of Natal. From Mr. Baines’s 
letter to Dr. Hooker, quoted in the article referred to, we learn that this 
arborescent Aloe was growing on the slope of a rugged hill, overlooking the 
sources of the Inada or Inanda rivulet, a tributary of the Tugela river, and 
perhaps nineteen or twenty miles north-east of Greytown. Early in June, 1873, 
while proceeding to examine a hill near the Tugela, reported to be auriferous, 
Mr. Baines first met with these aborescent Aloes, and remarked their similarity to 
the great Tree Aloe of Damaraland, and also noticed that they were different. 
The men of his party being heavily laden, and the way exceedingly rough, he did 
not detain them, resolving to make a sketch on his return, but when he again 
passed the locality, he had no opportunity of doing so; he believes, however, that 
he saw a flower of a bright orange or scarlet colour on one of the trees. On July 2, 
when returning from the Inyemba hill, where they had been prospecting with 
just suflScient success to ascertain that gold was actually there, the rugged slope 
was again crossed, and this being the only place where the Aloe had been 
observed, Mr. Baines let the men go on, and halted to make a sketch, sending a 
Kaffir up the tree to gather a branch, and to search for flowers. The tree 
sketched was estimated at 20 ft. high, and the spread of its crown about 15 ft. 
The trunk seemed about 2 ft. thick, and at 5 ft. or 6 ft. from the ground divided 
into half-a-dozen branches, and these again were subdivided into many more. 
The bark was white and smootl^ as in the Tree Aloe of Damaraland, but the 
