Plate 160.
ALOE CHORTOLIRIOIDES.
Transvaal.
Liliaceae. Tribe Aloineae.
Aloe, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 776.
Aloe chortolirioides, Berger in Engl. Pflanzenreich, Liliac-Asphodel-Aloin.
171 (1908).
This graceful little Aloe, so far as we are aware, is confined to the Barberton District of the Transvaal. The plant has a very different habit from most species in the genus, inasmuch as it grows in large tufts, and the short stem, covered with the membranous leaf-bases, very much resembles that of a Vellozia.
We are indebted to Mr. Geo. Thorncroft of Barberton for the specimens from which the plate was prepared.
Description:—Stems tufted, covered with the remains of the leaf-bases; leaves 10 to 20 cm. long, linear from a dilated base, channelled, with the margins lined with small spines. Peduncle 16 cm. long, bearing, almost to the base, membranous ovate awned bracts. Floral-bracts 1·4 cm. long, membranous, ovate, long-acuminate, distinctly veined. Pedicels articulating at the apex and persistent. Perianth 3 cm. long, with a cylindric tube and 1-nerved lobes. Stamens exserted. Style 4 cm. long, filiform, long-exserted in old flowers (National Herb. 2733).