236 JUICY ALOE. 



tions that are made from wheat and sugar. But 

 the new world affords an instance of men who not 

 only procure liquor from the sugary substance of 

 the maize, the manioc, and banana, and from the 

 pulp of several species of mimosa, but who ex- 

 pressly cultivate the aloe, which yields a pleasant 

 juice for daily refreshment, and also a vinous 

 beverage, equally stomachic, strengthening, and 

 nutritive. Throughout a vast extent of country, on 

 the interior table-land in Puebla and Mexico, the 

 eye reposes only on fields thick set with aloes. 

 This plant, of a leathery and prickly leaf, has, in 

 company with the Cactus opuntia^ become wild 

 since the sixteenth century, throughout the southern 

 parts of Europe, in the Canary Islands, and on the 

 coast of Africa. 



Several species of the aloe afford secure citadels 

 for small birds. I lately noticed one of this de- 

 scription in the Botanical Garden at Chelsea. It 

 grew to a considerable height, with saucer-shaped 

 leaves, rising in tiers one above the other. They 

 looked as if especially designed for places of refuge, 

 and to them small birds resort in order to build 

 their nests. All who trust to them are safe; for 

 neither the twining serpent nor wily monkey can 

 attack the young, or seize the sitting bird. 



The juicy aloe, concerning which I have just 

 spoken, is peculiarly valuable in the region where 

 it grows, which, lying generally beneath the torrid 

 zone, is now deluged with excessive rain, and now 

 scorched with burning heat. We find accordingly 

 that Mexico is abundant in fruit rather than grain. 

 There, as in Peru and the Brazils, grow pine-apples 



