]$2 MEDICINAL PLAN1S. 



beset at the edges with spiny teeth : the flowers are produced 

 in terminal spikes, and of a purple or reddish colour : there 

 is no calyx: the corolla is monopetalous, tubular, nectariferous, cut 

 into six narrow leaves which separate at the mouth : the filaments 

 are six, tapering, yellowish, inserted into the receptacle, and fur- 

 nished with oblong orange-coloured authers : the germen is oblong, 

 supporting a simple slender style, of the length of the filaments, 

 and terminated by an obtuse stigma : the capsule is oblong and 

 divided into three cells, with as many valves, and contains many 

 angular seeds. 



It is a native of Africa, and flowers most part of the year. 



Not only the socotorine aloes, which is the inspissated juice of the 

 plant here represented, but also the hepatic or Barbadoes aloes is 

 directed for officinal use in our pharmacopoeias. This however 

 being obtained from another variety of the same species, viz. the 

 aloe (a. vera) with thick denticulate spinous leaves, spotted on 

 the surface, and shooting in every direction, we shall not particu- 

 larly notice it. Besides, it appears probable from the observations 

 of professor Murray, that different species as well as varieties of aloe 

 would furnish the various kinds of this drug, and that Linnaeus by 

 referring these sorts to those plants, the recent juice of which seemed 

 to respectively correspond the nearest to them in taste, might easily 

 be misled ; for Murray upon tasting the fresh juice of many different 

 species of aloe, sometimes found it bitter, and at other times totally 

 devoid of bitterness. 



A tract of mountains about fifty miles from the Cape of Good 

 Hope is wholly covered with the aloes plants, which renders the 

 planting of them there unnecessary ; but in Jamaica and Barbadoes 

 they are now carefully cultivated ; to the former of these islands, 

 they were first brought from Bermuda, and gradually propagated 

 themselves. They require two or three years standing before they 

 yield their juice in perfection; to procure which, according to Dr. 

 Browne, "The labourers go into the field with tubs and knives, and 

 cut off the largest and most succulent leaves close to the stalk ; these 

 are immediately put into the tubs, and disposed one by the side of 

 another in an upright position, that all the loose liquor may dribble 

 out at the wound. When this is thought to be almost wholly dis- 

 charged, the leaves are taken out one by one, passed through the 

 hand to clear off any part of the juice that may yet adhere, or stick 



