A L O 



AL5 



weeding of them by hand ; as, if the plants are 

 not kept perfectly clean, and free from weeds, 

 theproduceis very small. They hear being planted 

 in any season of the year, even the driest, as they 

 will live on the surface of the ground, without 

 any rain, for many weeks. 



The method of collecting the juice of the 

 plants, and preparing the resinous extract, is 

 ■ described in the following manner in the new 

 edition of Miller's Dictionary: 



In the month of March, when the plants are 

 a year old, the labourers carry a parcel of tubs 

 and jars into the field, and each takes a slip, or 

 breadth of it, and begins by laying hold of a 

 bunch of the blades, as much as he can conve- 

 nient! v grasp with one hand, while with the other 

 he cuts it just above the surface of the earth, as 

 quickly as possible (that the juice may not be 

 wasted,) and then places the blades in the tub, 

 bunch by bunch or handful by handful. When 

 the first tub is thus packed quite full, a second is 

 begun, (each labourer having two,) and by the time 

 the second is filled all the juice is generally drain- 

 ed out of the Wades in the first tub. The whole of 

 the blades are then lightly taken out, and thrown 

 over the land by way of manure, and the juice is 

 poured out into ajar. The tub is then filled again 

 with more blades, and so alternately, till the la- 

 bourer has produced his jar full, or about four 

 gallons and a half of juice, which is often done 

 in six or seven hours : and he has then the re- 

 mainder of the day to himself, it being his em- 

 ployer's interest to get each day's operation as 

 quickly done as possible. Though the Aloe plants 

 are often cut in nine, ten, or twelvemonths after 

 being planted, they are not in perfection till the 

 second or third year : but they are productive for 

 a length of time, as ten or twelve years, or even 

 tor a considerably longer time, if good dung or 

 manure of any kind be strewed over the field once 

 in three or four years, or oftener. As the aloe- 

 juice will keep for several weeks without injury, 

 it is not boiled till a sufficient quantity is col- 

 lected to make it an object for the boiling- 

 house. In the large way, three boilers, either of 

 iron or copper, are set up for one fire, though 

 some have but two, and the small planters only 

 one. The boilers arc filled with the juice ; and as 

 it ripens, or becomes more inspissated, by a con- 

 stant regular fire, it is ladled forward from boiler 

 to boiler, and fresh juice added to that furthest 

 from the fire, till that which is in that nearest the 

 fire, which is much the smallest, and commonly 

 named tatck, as in the manufacture of sugar, be- 

 comes of a proper consistency to be skipped, or la- 

 dled out into gourds, or other small vessels destined 

 for its final reception. The proper time to skip or 

 ladle it out of the tatch is when it is arrived at what 

 3 



is termed a resin height, or when it drops freely, 

 or in thin flakes, from the edges of a small wooden 

 slice, that is dipped from time to time into the 

 tatch, for that purpose. Some aloe-boilers make 

 use of a little lime waterduring the process, when 

 the ebullition is too great. 



The process of sun-drying is very simple, 

 though extremely tedious. The raw juice is 

 either put into bladders, left quite open at top, 

 and suspended in the sun, or into broad shallow 

 trays of wood, pewter or tin, and exposed in the 

 same manner every dry day, until all the fluid parts 

 are exhaled, and a perfect resin formed, which is 

 then packed up for use, or exportation. 



The extract prepared from the Barbadoes Aloe 

 is generally of a coarse appearance. 



That of the best quality has the name of Suc- 

 cotrine Aloes, from the circumstance of the island 

 of Zoeotra or Socotora, in the straits of Babel- 

 mandel, having formerly been famous for the 

 preparation of the extract. It is of a yellowish 

 brown colour, approaching to purple, and when 

 reduced to powder has a sort of gold colour. 



The Aloe plants, from the great differences in 

 their heights, modes of growth, and the shapes 

 of their leaves, as well as the beauty of their 

 flowers, are well adapted for the purpose of af- 

 fording variety, and producing a singularity of 

 effect in the greenhouse, or in courts or other 

 places about the house during the summer season. 

 ALOE Ajricana. See Crassula. 

 ALOE Americana. See Agave. 

 ALOE Uvaria. See Ai.etris. 

 ALSTROEMERIA, a genus comprising diffe- 

 rent herbaceous perennial plants of the exotic kind. 

 It belongs to the class and order HexandriaMono- 

 gynia, and ranks in the natural order of Liliacece. 

 The characters of which are : that it has no 

 calyx : the corolla is six-petalled and sub-bila- 

 biate, the three outer petals being wedge-shaped, 

 retuse, mucronate ; the inner, which are alternate 

 with the others, lanceolate, the two lower ones 

 tubulous at the base: the stamina have awl- 

 shaped filaments, bending down and unequal : 

 the antherae oblong : the pistillum has a germ 

 inferior, hexangular, truncate, the style bendino- 

 down, filiform, of the length of the stamen : the 

 stigmas three, oblong and bifid : the pericarpium 

 is a roundish, six-ribbed, mucronate capsule, 

 three-celled and fhree-valved : the valves concave, 

 and contrary to the dissepiment : the seeds very 

 many, globose, covered with raised points, sub- 

 umbilicate at the tip. 



The species more generally cultivated are : 



1 . A. pelegr/na, Spotted-flowered Alstroemeria ; 



2. A. Ligtu, Striped-flowered Alst 



3. A. Sa/siUa, Climbing Alstroemeria; 4. A. 

 muhijlora, Many-flowered Alstroemeria. 



