214 REMARKS ON THE Al-OE. 



addressing the object of his love, says, " Thy plants are an orchard of 

 pomegranates, with pleasant fruits ; camphire, with spikenard ; 

 spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of 

 frankincense ; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices : a fountain 

 of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon:" 

 upon which, the object of his love, as if in an enthusiasm of delight 

 at his speaking so of the place she lives in, beautifully exclaims, 

 " Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow upon my 

 garden, that the spices thereof may come out. Let my beloved 

 come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."' 



Moore describes the Aloes-wood burnt as a perfume in a Persian 

 palace : 



" Here the way leads o'er tesselated floors, 

 Or mats of Cairo, through long corridors, 

 Where, ranged in Cassolets, and silver urns, 

 Sweet wood of aloe or of sandal hums ; 

 And spicy rods, such as illume at night 

 The bowers of Tibet, send forth odorous light, 

 Like Peri's wand, when pointing out the road 

 For some pure spirit to its blest abode.'' 



Latrobe describes a very beautiful Aloe growing at the Cape, with 

 most brilliant flowers : 



" Large Aloes were interspersed among the bushes, and with their 

 broad leaves form a striking contrast to the many small-leaved ever- 

 greens which surround them. Some of them were in full bloom, 

 towering above the thicket, and one more perfect than the rest was 

 brought into the waggon. The flower consisted of seven branches, 

 one in the centre, and six surrounding it at regular distances. The 

 centre branch was a foot and a half long, the rest about thirteen 

 inches, all thickly covered with a succession of long, bell-shaped 

 flowers, each orange-coloured at the stem, and passing into bright 

 vermilion towards the top. The brilliant appearance of this huge 

 flower, or mass of flowers, disposed like a chandelier, and mounted 

 on a stem six feet in height, with a capital of massive leaves, spread- 

 ing above three feet in diameter, is beyond conception grand." 



He mentions auother, of smaller growth, extremely beautiful 



also : 



" The waste produces some beautiful plants, among which I par- 

 ticularly noticed the Fahlblar, a species of Aloe, the leaves of which 



