40 FLOWEBS. 
From the juice pressed from the flowers of this 
plant, the natives prepare a very pleasant and refresh- 
ing beverage, called “pulque,’ of which they are 
very fond, and it is said to be quite nutritious and 
wholesome, although, if taken in large quantities, it 
produces the same effect as brandy. 
The drug called aloes is the thickened juice of a 
species of aloe, which grows abundantly near the 
Cape of Good Hope. It is procured by cutting the 
leaves in pieces, and pressing and boiling them ; after 
which the juice is allowed to cool, when it becomes 
hard. 
How few, who look upon the thick spiny leaves 
of the Aloes, as they stand in our green-houses, ever 
reflect upon the great usefulness of this plant to the 
natives of America ! 
Hanging in gay festoons about the venerable trees 
of the American forests, the various kinds of Passion- 
Flowers form objects of splendor which arrest the 
attention of the traveller. In this, their native soil, 
they grow to much greater perfection than when kept 
in our green-houses; and their large starry blossoms 
hang down in profusion among the branches, or clasp 
by their strong tendrils the immense trunks of the 
trees. 
There are upwards of forty species found growing 
in various parts of the world, varying greatly in their 
color and appearance. Some are very strong and 
robust plants, sending out long stout stems which lay 
hold of anything within their reach; and in the 
summer season, when their growth is rank and rapid, 
