Fi wt ape gar eee 
ALOE PERFPOLIATA SOCOTORINA,. ORD. XLVI. Liliaver. 7 69 
A tract of mountains about fifty miles from the: Cape. of Good 
_ Hope is wholly covered with the aloes plants, which renders the 
planting of them there unnecessary ; but in Jamaica and Barbadoes 
they are now carefully cultivated ; to'the former of these Islands, 
they were first brought from Bermuda, and gradually propagated — 
themselves. They require two or three years standing before they 
yield their juice in perfection; to procure which, according to 
Dr. Browne, “ The Jabourers go into the field with tubs and 
knives, and cut off the largest and most succulent leaves close to 
the stalk ; these are immediately put into the tubs, and disposed 
one by the side of another in an upright position, that all the 
loose liquor may dribble out at the wound. When this is thought 
to be almost wholly discharged, the leaves are taken out one by 
one, passed through the hand to clear off any part of the juice 
that may yet adhere, or stick in the less open veins; and the 
liquor put in shallow flat-bottomed vessels, and dried gradually in 
the sun, until it acquires a proper consistence. What is obtained 
in this manner is generally called socetorine aloes, and is the 
clearest-a > as well as the highest in esteem and 
value.” | The method of procuring the common aloes he states to 
be nearly the same with that mentioned by Mr. Hughes, and lately 
by Mr. Millington: after a sufficient quantity of juice is drained 
from the leaves, to make it an object for the boiling house, the 
last-mentioned gentleman informs us, “ three boilers, either of 
probably the aloe mentioned by Hughes and Browne. A figure of it is given in 
the Gottingen Trans. for the year 1788. 
2. Aloe spicata Thunb. (see supp. plant.) this is said to afford the best hepatic 
aloes, 3. Aloe lingueformis (see syst. veg. ed. 14.) This plant in the interior 
parts of the Cape, is selected by some as producing the best and purest aloes, 
Thunb. de Med. African. p. 7. But the greatest quantity of aloes exported from 
the Cape of Good Hope, is prepared from another species, not defined by 
Thunberg, though not uncommon in our botanic gardens V. Physiogr. Salsk. 
Handi. P. 1. p. 112. and Sparrman Resa til Goda a alia ‘it is 
probably the A. spicata of Thund, 
’ See Browne’s Jamaica, p.198. © See his History of Barbadon, p- 159. 
4 See London Med. Journal, V. 8. p. 422 
No. 53.—vo.. 4. 91 
