ALOE. 11 



break or wound those which are young and fresh. Water 

 them gently when newly planted, place them in the shade 

 for three weeks, and if the weather is hot and dry, water 

 them in a similar manner once or twice a week. Most of 

 the species may at this time be increased by offsets, which 

 should be planted in very small pots ; and if, in taking off 

 the suckers, you find them very moist where they are 

 broken from the mother-root, they should lie in a dry 

 shady place for a week before they are planted. When 

 planted, treat them like the old plants. Such kinds as do 

 not afford plenty of offsets may generally be propagated 

 by taking off some of the under leaves, laying them to dry 

 for ten days or a fortnight, and planting them, putting 

 that part of the leaf which adhered to the old plant about 

 an inch or an inch and a half into the earth. This should 

 be done in June. 



There are few things, I believe, more venerable, more 

 eloquently impressive in their antiquity, than an old tree. 

 The ruins of an old and noble edifice, of which every shat- 

 tered fragment, every gaping cranny, complains of the de- 

 structive hand of time, is young and modern in our eyes, 

 compared with that which still survives its touch, the old 

 ivy, that still, with every succeeding year, moves slowly on, 

 knitting its creeping stalks into every crevice, and carrying 

 its broad leaves up to the very summit. What can be more 

 venerable than the far-spreading roots of an old elm or 

 oak tree, veining the earth with wood ! Cross but that little 

 piece of wood, called the wilderness, leading from Hamp- 

 stead towards North End, where the intermingled roots 

 are visible at every step, casing the earth in impenetrable 

 armour, and forming a natural pavement, apparently as old 

 as time itself can all the antiquities of Egypt command 

 a greater reverence ? 



The larger species of Aloe, from the immensity of its 



