212 REMARKS ON THE ALOE. 



moist where they are broken ftom the mother-root, they should lie in 

 a dry shady place for a week hefore they are planted. When planted, 

 treat them like the old plants. Such kinds as do not afford plenty of 

 offsets may generally be propagated by taking off some of the under 

 leaves, laying them to dry for ten days or a fortnight, and planting 

 them, putting that part of the leaf which adhered to the old plant 

 sbout an inch or an inch and a half into the earth. This should be 

 done in June. 



There are few things, I believe, more venerable, more eloquently 

 impressive in their antiquity, than an old tree. The ruins of an old 

 and noble edifice, of which every shattered fragment, every gaping 

 cranny, complains of the destructive hand of time, is young and 

 modern in our eyes, compared with that which still survives its touch, 

 — the old ivy, that still, with every succeeding year, moves slowly on, 

 knitting its creeping stalks into every crevice, and carrying its broad 

 leaves up to the very summit. What can be more venerable than the 

 far-spreading roots of an old elm or oak tree, veining the earth with 

 wood ! Cross but that little piece of wood, called the wilderness, 

 leading from Hampstead towards North End, where the intermingled 

 roots are visible at every step, casing the earth in impenetrable 

 armour, and forming a natural pavement, apparently as old as time 

 itself — can all the antiquities of Egypt command a greater reverence ? 

 The larger species of Aloe, from the immensity of its size, and 

 the known slowness of t its growth, must speak the same impressive 

 language. Mr. Campbell has put it in a noble attitude for the occa- 

 sion : 



" Rocks sublime 



To human art a sportive semblance bore, 



And yellow lichens colour'd all the clime 



Like moonlight battlements, and towers decay'd by time. 



But high in amphitheatre above, 



His arms the everlasting aloe threw." 



The Abbe* la Pluche gives an interesting account of the uses of the 

 Chinese Aloe, commonly called Wood-aloes, or Aloes- wood; from 

 whence, as has been supposed, the name of aloe has been transferred 

 to the common species. 



" This Aloe," says he, " is as tall as the olive-tree, and of much 

 the same shape: there are three sorts of wood contained under its 

 bark ; the first is black, compact, and heavy ; the second swarthy, 



