LILIACEJE. 471 



Prof. Bayley Balfour, wlio visited Socotra on a botanical 

 expedition in 1880, has given tlie following account of the 

 manner in which aloes is prepared: — "The gum is known as 

 tdyefhj the natives'. The collector scrapes a slight hollow on 

 the surface of the ground in the vicinity of an aloe plants into 

 which he depresses the centre of a small portion of goat-skin 

 spread over the ground. The leaves of the aloe are cut and 

 laid in a circle on the skin, with the cut ends projecting over 

 the central hollow. Two or three layers are arranged. The 

 juice, which is of a pale amber colour, with a slight mawkish 

 odour and taste, trickles from the leaves upon the goat-skin. 

 After about three hours the leaves are exhausted; the skin con- 

 taining the juice is then removed from beneath them, and the 

 juice is transferred to a bag made of skin. Only the older 

 leaves are used. The juice thus collected is of a thin watery 

 character, and is known as tayef rhiho, or watery aloes. In 

 this condition it is exported to Muscat and Arabia, and sells 

 for three dollars the skin of 30 lbs. By keeping, however, the 

 aloes changes in character. After a month the juice, by loss 

 of water, becomes denser and more viscid ; it is then known 

 as tayef gesheeshah^ and is more valuble, a skin of 30 lbs. fetching 

 five dollars; whilst in about fifteen days more— that is, about 

 si.x weeks after collection — it gets into a tolerably hard solid 

 mass, and is then tayef kamJiuI, and is worth seven dollars a 

 skin of 30 lbs. In this last condition it is commonly exi>orted. 

 {Trans. EL Soe. of Edinhuygh, xxxi.. Introductory Chapter, 

 p. xxxviii.). 



Description. — Socotrine aloes is imported into Bombay 

 tiii Zanzibar and the Red Sea ports. It is packed in skins, the 

 packages varying much in size and shape, and often contammg 

 a large proportion of rubbish, such as pieces of hide, stones, 

 &c. In Bombay the skins are opened, and the aloes repacked 

 in boxes for exportation to Europe- The best Socotrine aloes 

 is of a golden-brown colour, hard externally, soft internally : 

 the odour ia aromatic and peculiar; when powdered or in 

 tliin fragments it is orange-brown, sometimes it is almost 

 fluid. 



