S. Gower del.
Plate 107.
ALOE comosa.
Cape Province.
Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae.
Aloe, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 776.
Aloe comosa, Marloth and A. Berg. in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. vol. 38, p. 86.
The Aloe which forms the subject of this plate is, so far as is known, only found on the Bokkeveld beds in the Clanwilliam and Van Rhynsdorp Districts of the Cape Province. Full-grown plants attain a height of 12-15 ft., and when in full bloom, which is usually during December and January, their long massive inflorescences make such a display of colour in the veld that they cannot fail to attract the notice of the traveller. As will be seen from the illustration, the uppermost flowers are hidden by the long bracts, the flowers in the middle portion of the inflorescence are pink and spreading, while those at the base are pendulous and greenish-white. The stamens are only exserted from the pendulous flowers, and after pollination the filaments contract and are withdrawn into the perianth, which closes round them, leaving the style exserted. This phenomenon is also found in Aloe saponaria figured on Plate 96, and is probably fairly general in the genus Aloe.
The material from which our plate was made was collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., on the Doorn River near Van Rhynsdorp, and brought to Pretoria, where the plants flower regularly every year during December and January. Aloe comosa was first collected and described by Dr. R. Marloth, who found it between Clanwilliam and Van Rhynsdorp in 1904.
Description:—Plant with a short stout stem or sometimes up to 12 ft. bearing a rosette of fleshy leaves at the apex, Leaves up to 52 cm. long, 10 cm. broad in the widest part, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, acute, flat above, slightly convex beneath, deeply channelled on the upper surface above, with the veins somewhat distinct on the upper surface and with the margins covered with sharp teeth; teeth 5-7 mm. apart, 2 mm. long, ovate. Inflorescence lateral about 1·3 m. long, racemose, narrowly cylindric, with the lowermost flowers pendulous, the upper flowers erect and adpressed and the median flowers spreading. Peduncle about 60 cm. long, 1·5 cm. in diameter, terete, covered with long membranous ovate-acuminate bracts 5 cm. long, 1 cm. broad. Floral-bracts 6 cm. long, lanceolate, long acuminate, acute, with membranous margins, encircling the pedicel. Pedicel 1·8-2 cm. long, at first erect, at length becoming curved, terete. Perianth-tube 1·2 cm. long, campanulate; outer lobes grenadine-pink, 2 cm. long, 5 mm. broad, lanceolate, hooded at the apex, 3-nerved; inner lobes whitish, 2 cm. long, obtuse and hooded at the apex, 1-nerved. Filaments 1·8 cm. long, lengthening to 4 cm. long in old flowers; anthers 3 mm. long, oblong. Ovary ellipsoid; style 2 cm. long, lengthening to 4 cm. in old flowers; stigma simple with a ring of papillose hairs. (National Herb. Pretoria, No. 2643.)