ALO 



ALO 



andria Monogynia class of plants, with a 

 liliaceous flower, consisting 1 of only one 

 tubular leaf divided into six deep seg- 

 ments at the edge ; its fruit is sm oblong 

 capsule, divided into three cells, and con- 

 taining a number of angulated seeds. 

 There are 16 species. 



Several species of this exotic plant are 

 cultivated in the gardens of the curious, 

 where they afford a very pleasing variety, 

 as well by the odd shape of their leaves, 

 as by the different spots with which they 

 are variegated. 



Some aloes are arborescent, or divided 

 into a number of branches, like trees ; 

 others are very small, growing close to 

 the ground. The two most considerable 

 species are the aloe of America, and that 

 of Asia; the former on account of its 

 beautiful flowers, and the latter for the 

 drug prepared from it. 



All the aloes are natives of hot climates ; 

 and the place of growth of most of them 

 is the Cape of Good Hope. The Hotten- 

 tots hollow out the trunk of the first spe- 

 cies, or A. dichotoma, to make quivers 

 for their arrows; and several of them are 

 used for hedges. Among the Mahome- 

 tans, and particularly in Egypt, the aloe 

 is a kind of symbolic plant, and dedicated 

 to the offices of religion : for pilgrims, on 

 their return from Mecca, suspend it over 

 their doors as an evidence of their having 

 performed that holy journey. The super- 

 stitious Egyptians imagine, that it has the 

 virtue of keeping off apparitions and evil 

 spirits from their houses, and it is hung 

 over the doors of Christians and Jews in 

 Cairo for this purpose. They also distil 

 from it a water, which is sold in the shops, 

 and recommended in coughs, asthmas and 

 hysterics. Hasselquist mentions a per- 

 son who was cured of the jaundice in four 

 days by taking about half a pint of it. The 

 Arabians call it sabbara. The negroes, 

 as we are informed by Adanson, in his 

 voyage to Senegal, make very good ropes 

 of the leaves of the Guinea aloes, which 

 are not apt to rot in water. M. Fabroni, 

 as we learn from theAnnales de Chimie, 

 procured from the leaves of the aloe suc- 

 cotrina angustifolia, a violet dye, which 

 resists the action of oxygen, acids, and 

 alkalies. This juice, he says, produces a 

 superb transparent colour, which is high- 

 ly proper for works in miniature, and 

 which, when dissolved in water, may 

 serve, either cold or warm, for dying silk 

 from the lightest to the darkest shade : 

 and he reckons it one of the most durable 

 colours known in nature. Aloes was 

 ustd among the ancients in embalming 1 , 





to preserve bodies from putrefaction. Qf 

 this species of aloes, interpreters under- 

 stand that to have been which Nicodemus 

 brought to embalm the body of Christ, 

 John xix. 3. Aloes, whose resinous part 

 is not soluble in water, have been used as 

 a preservative to ship's bottoms against 

 the worms, to which those that trade to 

 the East and West Indies are particularly 

 subject. One ounce of aloes is sufficient 

 for two superficial feet of plank ; about 

 12ib. for a vessel of 50 tons burthen, and 

 SOOlb. for a first rate man of war. It 

 may be incorporated with six pounds of 

 pitch, one of Spanish brown, or whiting, 

 and a quart of oil ; or with the same pro- 

 portion of turpentine, Spanish brown and 

 tallow. Such a coat, it has been said, will 

 preserve a ship's bottom eight months., 

 and the expense for a first rate ship will 

 be about 18/. The same composition may 

 be used in hot countries for preserving 

 rafters, &c. from the wood-ant. The effi- 

 cacy of aloes, as a defence against worras^ 

 has been controverted. 



AI.OE, or ALOES, in pharmacy, the in- 

 spissated juice of the aloe perfoliata, Asi- 

 atic aloe, prepared in the following man- 

 ner : from the leaves, fresh pulled, is 

 pressed a juice, the thinner and purer 

 part of which is poured off, and set in the 

 sun to evaporate to a hard yellowish sub- 

 stance, which is called sitccotrine alog, as 

 being chiefly made at Succotra. The 

 thicker part, being put into another ves- 

 sel, hardens into a substance of a liver- 

 colour, and thence called aloe hepatica. 

 The thickest part, or sediment, hardens 

 into a coarse substance, called aloe caba- 

 tinciy or the horse-aloe, as being chiefly 

 used as a purge for horses. 



Fabroni has discovered that the recent 

 juice of the leaves of the aloe has the pro- 

 perty of absorbing oxygen, of assuming a 

 fine reddish purple, and of yielding a pig- 

 ment which he strongly recommends to 

 the artist. 



ALOPECURUS, fox-tail-grass, in bo- 

 tany, a genus of the Triandria Digynia 

 class of plants, and of the natural order of 

 Grasses, the calyx of which is a bivalve 

 glume, containing a single flower; the 

 valves are hollow, of an ovate lanceolatec! 

 figure, equal in size, and compressed ; 

 the corolla is univalve ; the valve is con- 

 cave, and of the length of the cup, and 

 has a very long arista inserted into its 

 back near the base. There is no peri- 

 carpium : the corolla itself remains, and 

 contains the seed, which is single and of 

 a roundish figure. There are 12 species. 

 The A., pratensis, meadow foxtail, is a na- 



