Feb. 
Gt 
Plate 
 XXV. 
Fig. 5, 
Beh acc Ss has eae Neco ae a ee ca aa 
sa a aaa Beat pee. ee 
gies. 
OF GARDENING 
$y 
The Gardeners know by the Name Pearl Aloe, 
two or three different Species ; but when that 
Title is ufed without Addition, it fhould be 
underftood to mean the Plant whofe F igure we 
have given from Nature in Plate 2. and whofe 
diftinctive Characters we are about to explain. 
_ ComMeE.ine has called this Species Moe Afri- 
cana folio in fummitate triangulari. Van Royen, 
Aloe foliis ovato fubulatis acuminatis tuberculis 
cartilagineis undique afperfis: and Linn &us in his 
laft Work, Aloe floribus fefilibus bilabiatis, labio 
fuperiore ereéio inferiore patente, Aloe with bila 
biate feffile Flowers, the upper Lip erect, and 
the lower patent. The Word feffile is {carce ap- 
plicable to it, and the preceding Name which 
very happily. defcribes the Form of the Leaves, 
is preferable. 
The Root is thick, and hesiaae: divided. 
. The Leaves are very: numerous, extreamly 
fingular in Form, and whether we regard their 
Shape or Difpofition, full of Beauty, 
They rife clufter’d together, and difplay. thems 
felves varioufly, fome nearly upright, fome flat 
upon the Ground, and others. at different. An- 
All are of the fame ‘Shegei and Hue; and 
the Points of all. turn. upwards. They are thick 
and fiefhy; their Colour a very lively green, and 
_ they are covered in a yarious and irregular Man- 
“ner with Spots, and rifing Tubercles: thefe are- 
of a firm Subftance, and in.Colour of a pearly 
white, and they are moft confpicuous on the 
younger Leaves. 
The Shape of the Leaf in this Plant is not | 
| Tubercles leaft diftinanithable, 
Branches in a kind of Spikes. 
fhort and flender Footftalk, and‘is tubular in the 
PEARL. #10 8... 
lefs remarkable than the Ornament: it is of safe 
oval Form in the whole, but that the Point: is 
immoderately long and flender ¢ toward this Point 
the Leaf grows triangular, and the Extremity is 
tip’d with. Schah caer This, with the fine ereen of 
the Body of the Leaf, and its pearly Protubers 
ances, give a delicate Variety: but the Points are 
moft red on the old Leaves ; and thefe have the 
The Stalk’ is two Foot high, and towards the ~ 
Top ufually divides into: three or four Branches. 
It is round, green, {mooth ; purplith at the Bot- 
tom, and without Leaves. 
' The Flowers want Colour to make them beau- 
tiful, but. they are numerous and fingular enough 
in Form. ‘They cover the Tops.of all the 
Each has its-very 
Body, and expanded in fix Segmerits at the Rim. 
There is fome Tinge of red often at the Bafe of 
the Flower; and the reft'is of a whitifh green: 
The Divifion at the Rim is fo far fingular, that 
it forms two rude Lips, of which the upper 
turns a little back. | 
There is no Cup to this F flower, but in its 
hollow Part rife fix Filaments and a fingle Style. 
Thefe refer it to the Henandria Monogynia of 
Linnatus, the fixth Clafs, and its firft SeGtion. - 
It is a Native of Africa, and is to be pro 
pagated as the other African Aloes from Suckers. 
‘The Method’ we have given at large in a 
preceding gee treating .of another of thefe — 
| Species. 
Plate 
> & G's 
Fig. 6. 
6 THORNY 
; “We give the Gardener here the general Narne | 
Senfitive, fuited to many Species of thé Mimofa, 
with various Additions ufed to exprefs. them all; 
and with the Epithet, thorny, ‘ ufually~ SDAP A | 
to this; which poflefés the Quality that Term 
defcribes of fhrinking from the Touch more de- 
hicately than many others. 
_ Breywius. ealis it,. Mimofa Bids EAN TSS ‘3 | feo 
parvis echinatis ; and by the fame Name it is de- 
{cribed in feveral of the fucceeding Authors. — 
LINN us, much more correét and diftinctive, 
calls it, Mimofa foliis fubdigitatis pinnatis caule 
aculeato bifpido, prickly - rough ftalked“Mimofa, 
with the Leaves pinnated, and difpofed in a fin- 
gerd Manner. 
The Enghfb Name Senjitive Plant, tho? jap- 
tion, has been given.to many, cthers. 
lity of seguding, from the Touch being not, pecu- 
har to the Mimofa, but inherent alfo~in one of. 
the Wood. Sorrels. very ftrongly, which thence 
3 
SENSITIVE PLANT, 
ut bas and i ina Te Degree i in many. others. 7 
~The Root 1S divided into many Parts, and 
| hung with Fibres, 
The Stem is round, as haltick as a 2 Gaile quill, 
of a brownith Colour toward the Bafe; and 
gtéener near the Extremities ; and is befet at 
The Height is about two Foot; and it divides. 
into innumerable Branches. The Bark on the — 
Alower Part auifually cracks and grows rough, but 
on the younger Shoots it remains always {mooth. 
| Thevkueaves are. very. Mingular and - beautiful. 
‘Each is fipported on a Jong tender Footttalk, 
which often droops with it; and is compofed of 
| five, fix,’ or eight Parts, :placed’ in the fingered 
propriated to. this Genus in common Acceptas | 
The (Qua- | 
Manner, and'each of thefe is regularly pinnated ; ; 
the Pinne: oblong; {mall, and extreamly nume+ 
TOUS, <i: 
‘The Colour is a fteth, but’ not very dark 
| green';' and‘the Pinna, and their f fupporting Ribs 
ebtain’d early the Name of the dive Plant, Herba 
naturally: ftand: all. wide expanded, but ‘on “a 
. . Touch . 
