DESCRIPTION:--A tall herbaceous shrub up to 2 m. high. _Stems_ somewhat fleshy, glabrous. _Leaves_ 8·5 to 11 cm. long, 2·5 cm. broad, lanceolate, acute, or sometimes rounded, distinctly narrowed to the base into a terete portion, flat above, slightly convex beneath, glabrous and covered with a glaucous bloom. _Inflorescence_ cymose, 12-to 15-flowered at the end of a naked peduncle. _Peduncle_ up to 30 cm. long, terete, 6 mm. in diameter. _Pedicels_ 1·5 to 3 cm. long, terete, densely covered with glandular hairs, expanded and disc-like above. _Sepals_ 8 mm. long, 4 mm. broad, ovate, obtuse, glandular-pubescent. _Petals_ persistent. _Corolla-tube_ 2 mm. long, gibbous at the base between the petals, glandular hispid; lobes 2 cm. long, 2 mm. broad, oblong-linear, with a small blunt apiculus, glandular-hispid, especially on the margins. _Stamens_ equal; filaments 2·2 cm. long, terete, with reflexed hairs at the base; anthers ovate or almost orbicular. _Carpels_ a little shorter than the stamens. _Glands_ at base of each carpel, 3 mm. long, 1·5 mm. broad, oblong, truncate, projecting into the cavity at base of the petals. * * * * * PLATE 154.--Fig. 1, median longitudinal section of flower; Fig. 2, longitudinal section of flower with pistil removed; Fig. 3, carpels showing glands at the base; Fig. 4, stamen; Fig. 5, cross-section of leaf. F.P.S.A., 1924. [Illustration: _155._] PLATE 155. ALOE PETRICOLA. _Transvaal._ * * * * * LILIACEAE. Tribe ALOINEAE. ALOE, _Linn._; _Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant._ vol. iii. p. 776. * * * * * =Aloe petricola=, _Pole Evans in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr._ vol. v. p. 707. * * * * * This _Aloe_ was first collected and photographed by Dr. Pole Evans at Nelspruit in September 1905. In the Nelspruit Valley (Barberton District) the plant is found chiefly on the granite outcrops, and in similar localities at Eland’s Hoek and in the Kaap Valley, where it was collected by Mr. Geo. Thorncroft. Like most of our Transvaal aloes, it flowers in mid-winter (July), and the flowering period extends well into August. _Aloe petricola_ is one of the stemless species, and the bicoloured inflorescence makes it quite a striking plant in the rockery. In the oldest flowers the filaments contract within the perianth, and the style then becomes exserted. Our plate was prepared from specimens which flowered at the Division of Botany, Pretoria.