390 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Hemerocallidex. 
and is called A. officinalis by Forskal, which may be the Alce rubescens of De Candolle. 
The former, Ale vulgaris, with yellow flowers, has now been subdivided into two 
species ; one A. abyssinica, and the other A. barbadensis, of which a variety is common 
in Italy, Malta, Spain, and the south of Europe, and which is supposed to have been 
introduced thence into the West Indies; as a yellow-flowered plant is cultivated there. 
In India there are, no doubt, two species, one figured by Rheede, (Hort. Malab. ii. 
t.3), A. vulgaris of De Candolle and Lamarck, with yellow flowers, and which may 
therefore be allied to, if it be not the oulfte as the above, A. barbadensis. The other 
species, with reddish flowers, is common in dry situations in the north-western provinces 
of India, and which I named A. indica, and which, if known to Roxburgh, was probably 
included by him in the A/ce perfoliata of Linnzus, as was formerly the case with several 
species. Col. Sykes has also a drawing of a species from Bombay, which is very 
similar to that usually called A. soccotrina. A.rufocincta is another Indian species 
described. by Haworth, but which he had not seen in flower. The Indian and Arabian 
species, though few in number, require careful revision from living, or very good dry 
specimens. : 
The plants of this group not being very closely connected in structure, cannot be 
expected to display any great correspondence in properties. The majority, however, are 
highly ornamental ; Polianthes tuberosa is remarkable for the fragrance of its flowers, and 
Aloes for the bitterness of its juice. This, in an inspissated state, has long been employed 
as a cathartic medicine. It was known as such to Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny, by 
the name Aloe, which is very like the Indian name elwa of this drug. It has no doubt 
been long an article of the Hindoo Materia Medica. By the Arabs, as Mesue and Avi- 
cenna, it has been described by the name sibbur or sibr, who give fekra, (an zixpos), as its. 
Greek name, and state that the best kind is obtained from Socotra, with Dragon’s blood. 
This is still the case, and Lieut. Wellsted informs us it is there called tayef. Some is 
probably prepared in Melinda, as also in Arabia, as Ainslie states that an inferior kind 
is bresight to India from Yemen, but it may be first importgd from the opposite coast of 
sia Some may be prepared on the west coast of India, as that which I procured 
in the bazars in Northern India, having some resemblance to Barbadoes aloes, is said 
to Ewe from Guzerat ; and Mr. Malcolmson informs me, that in Madras they procured 
their aloes from Bombay, and found an extract of it of excellent quality for hospital use; 
and also from Salem and Trichinopoly. Browne, in his Natural History of Jamaica, 
describes two kinds of aloes as made in that island, one of which they call Soccotrine Alves, 
from being similarly prepared, being the gradually dried juice of the cut leaves. The 
second and more abundant kind is an extract made by boiling the leaves cut into pieces, 
with a certain quantity of water, which, when of a proper consistence, is poured into 
~ seeing could be assent than to cultivate the best kinds of aloes in many compa- 
Bes : parts - india, and to prepare aloes equal to the best procurable elsewhere. 
. Rip cscs 2 this family, like Agave and Bromelia, are remarkable for the tenacity 
their leaves. Thus, Phormium tenax, or New Zealand Flax, is well known 
as 
