A. perfoliata. t; purpurafcens; foliis purpuraicentibus, fubtus 

 inferne maculatis maculis parvis fubrotundis. HorL Kew. 1. 

 466. 



This fpecies is faid to be that from which the medicine of the 

 fame name is obtained ; but Thunberg remarks that a ftill 

 fuperior fort is had from A.fpicata, a plant, we believe, to this 

 time unknown in our collections. The ftem of foccotrina grows 

 in our greenhoufes to nearly the height of fix feet, acquiring 

 the thicknefs of a man's arm ; the leaves are fometimes fpotted 

 with white on the outfide towards their bafe ; feldom exceed a 

 foot in length and 1 — 2 inches in breadth near the bafe; when 

 the plant is in flower, the inner ones generally converge, bending 

 inwards j their colourlefs juice, when expofed to the air and 

 fuffered to dry, becomes of a bright violet-purple colour, a 

 colour indeed they themfelves ufually allume before they are 

 quite decayed. Native of the Cape of Good Hope, although 

 the name befpcaks it as belonging to the Illand of Socotora; 

 whence the bell Aloe for medical purpofcs is faid to have been 

 formerly imported; but it does not feem afcertained from which 

 fpecies it was extracted. 



Our drawing was made from a fpecimen that flowered in 

 March laft (at the fame time with a.) in Mr. Ha worth's 

 greenhoufe. By that gentleman, j3. is confidered as a dilf-incl 

 fpecies from a ; and in this view of it he is followed in the 

 fecond edition of the Hortus Kewenfis. As we could difcover 

 no difference between them beyond that of fize, we have re- 

 corded them for mere varieties of each other- The flower- 

 ftem feldom exceeds two feet in length ; the foliage is of darkifh 

 dull green, clouded over with a grey bloom or hoar; the 

 corolla is of a dark brick-red colour, green at the top; about 

 an inch and a half in length : (3 was known in our gardens 

 before 1789, poflibly produced in them from «. G. 



NOTE. 



No. 472; for "Aloe Perfoliata, var. SuccotrinAj 

 read "Aloe soccotrina. «."; inferting at the fame time 

 the fynonymy as given in the prefent article. G, 



