557 
/ 
duced in terminal fpikes, and of a purple or reddifli colour- ther 
no calyx: the corolla is monopetalous, tubular, nectariferous 
e is 
cut 
into fix narrow leaves which feparate at the mouth : the filaments 
are fix, tapering, yellowim, inferted into the receptacle, and fur- 
nifhed with oblong orange-coloured antherse : the germen is 
ob 
long, fupporting a fimple flender ftyle, of the length of the fila- 
ments, and terminated by an obtufe ftigma: the capfule is oblong 
and divided into three cells, with as many valves, and contains many 
angular feeds. 
It is a native of Africa, and flowers moft part of the year. 
Not only the focotorine aloes, which is the infpiffated juice of the 
plant here represented, but alfo the hepatic or Barbadoes aloes is 
directed for officinal ufe in our pharmacopoeias. This however being 
obtained from another variety of the fame fpecies, viz. the alo 
> vera) foliis fpinofis confertis dentatis vaginantibus planis ma- 
culatis L. it has not been thought necelfary to give a feparate figure 
of it here. Befides, it. appears probable from the obfervations of Pro- 
feffor Murray, that different fpecies as well as varieties of aloe would 
furnifh the various kinds of this drug, and that Linnaeus by refer- 
ring thefe forts to thofe plants, the recent juice of which feemed to 
refpe&ively correfpond the neareft to them in tafte, might eafily be ' 
milled ; for Murray upon rafting the frefli juice of many different 
fpecies of aloe, fometimes found it bitter, and at other times totally 
devoid of bitternefs/ 
A tract of mountains about fifty miles from the Cape of Good 
Hope is wholly covered with the aloes plants, which renders the 
See Comment at 10 de fucci aloes amari inltiis in Murr. Opufc. torn. 2. p. 488. This 
author found thebittereft fpecies to be the following : 1. Aloe elongata, floribus fpicatis 
tubulofo-triquetris fubringentibus oblique dependentibus, foliis aggregatis dentato- 
fpinofis. ] t feems to be the variety % of the fpec. plant, and is probably the aloe men- 
tioned by Hughes and Browne. A figure of it is given in the Gottingen Tranf. for 
the year 1788. 
2. Aloe fpicata Thunb. (feefupp. plant.) this is faid to afford the beft hepatic aloes. 
3- Aloe linguaeformis (Tee fyft. veg. ed. 14.) This plant in the interior parts of the 
Cape, is fele&ed by fome as producing the belt and pureft aloes. Thunb. de Med. Afri- 
can, p. 7. But the greateft quantity of aloes exported from the Cape of Good Hope, is 
prepared from another fpecies, not defined by Thunberg, though not uncommon in _our 
botanic gardens V. Phyfiogr. Salfk. Handl. P. 1. p. 112. and Sparrman Re/a til Goda 
Hopps-udden. p. 742, it is probably the A, fpicata of Thunb 
planting 
