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 (R.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 (R.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 compressed towards the apex so as to close the mouth of the tube. _Stamens_ just exserted; filaments bright chalcedony-yellow (R.C.S.); anthers grenadine-red (R.C.S.). _Capsule_ enclosed within the dry perianth, 20 mm. long, cylindrical-trigonous, woody. _Seeds_ 4-5 mm. long, irregular, narrowly winged.
PLATE 17.--Fig. 1, plant much reduced; Fig. 2, bract; Fig. 3, stamen; Fig. 4, capsule.
ALOE, _Linn._; _Benth. et Hook. f._ vol. iii. p. 776.
=Aloe pretoriensis=, _Pole Evans in Trans. S. Afr. Roy. Soc._ vol. v. p. 32, t. xii. xiii.
This handsome _Aloe_ occurs on the northern slopes of the hills around Pretoria, and is especially abundant on Meintjes’ Kop. It is also found near Lydenburg, at Barberton, the Premier Mine, and along the foot of the Lebombo range of mountains. The flowers usually appear in May, and when in flower the plants attract large numbers of brightly coloured sun-birds. The tall branched inflorescence forms the most striking feature of the plant, and when one compares it with that of _Aloe lineata_, which is unbranched and differs in many other important respects, it seems almost incredible that _A. pretoriensis_ should have been mistaken by so many botanists for _A. lineata_ as has been done.