ALOE SOCOTRINA. SOCOTRINE ALOE. 
Class VI. HEXANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, ASPHODELE.E. THE ASPHODEL TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) represents a flower cut open; ( b ) the germen and style. 
The Socotrine Aloe is a perennial plant, with a strong fibrous root; flowering in winter and spring. The 
stem is rounded, smooth, erect, of a glaucous green colour towards the top beset with ovate bracteal scales, 
and rises to the height of three or four feet. The leaves are numerous, spreading, and proceed from the 
upper part of the root; they are about two feet long, broad at the base, tapering gradually to a point, thick, 
fleshy, succulent, channelled, glaucous, smooth, and armed at the edges with remote, whitish, horny teeth. 
The flowers are produced in terminal spikes, of a purple or reddish colour ; each flower being accompanied 
with a single ovate, acute, broad,hnembranous bracte, white, with three green streaks, and shorter than the 
corolla. The perianth is petaloid, bell-shaped, and divided into six narrow segments ; the three inner lobes 
are white with three green lines ; the outer ones narrower and less concave. The filaments are six, tapering 
yellowish, exserted from the receptacle, and furnished with oblong, orange-coloured anthers; the germen is 
oblong, with a simple slender style, and an obtuse stigma. The capsule is oblong, 3-celled, containing 
many angular seeds. 
All the species of this extensive genus are natives of hot climates, and most of them grow at the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
It is now well known that numerous individuals of the Aloe family furnish the concrete juice, met with 
in commerce under the name of aloes ; but the subject is still surrounded with so many difficulties, that we 
must crave the indulgence of our readers, should we be so unfortunate as to perpetuate errors, or fail 
to increase their present stock of knowledge. Six different kinds of aloes are met with in commerce : — 
1st. Barbadoes aloes, also called Hepatic aloes, and extract of the common aloe, is, as stated before, the 
produce of the A. vulgaris. The following account of the culture pursued at Barbadoes, and of the method 
by which the juice is collected, was communicated by Mr. Millington to the Medical Journal, vol. viii. 
“ The lands in the vicinity of the sea, that is, from two to three miles, which are rather subject to 
draught than otherwise, and are so stony and shallow, as not to admit of planting sugar-canes with any 
prospect of success, are generally found to answer best for the aloe-plant. The stones, at least the largest 
ones, are first picked up, and either packed in heaps upon the most shallow, barren spots, or laid round the field 
as a dry wall. The land is then ploughed lightly, and very carefully cleaned of noxious weeds, lined at one 
foot distance from row to row, and the young plants set, like cabbages, at about five or six inches from 
each other. This regular mode of lining, and setting the plants, is practised by the most exact planters, in 
order to facilitate the weeding of them by hand very frequently, because, if they are not kept perfectly 
clean and free from weeds, the produce will be but very small. 
“ They will bear being planted in any season of the year, even in the driest, as they will live on the 
surface of the earth for many weeks, without a drop of rain. The most general time, however, of planting 
them is from April to June. In the March following, 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 conveniently 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 full, all the juice is generally drained out of the blades 
in the first tub. The blades are then lightly taken out, and thrown over the land by way of manure, and 
the juice is poured out into a jar. The tub is then filled with blades, and so alternately till the labourer 
has produced his jar full, or about four gallons and a half, which is often done in six or seven hours, and he 
has then the remainder of the day to himself, it being his employer’s interest to get each day’s operation as 
quickly done as possible. 
“I should observe, that although aloes are often cut in nine, ten, or twelve months after being planted, 
they are not in perfection till the second and third year ; and that they will be productive for ten or twelve 
years, or even longer, if good dung, or manure of any kind, be strewed over the field once in three or four 
years. 
“The aloe juice will keep for several weeks without injury. It is, therefore, not boiled till a sufficient 
quantity is procured to make it an object for the boiling house. In the large way, three boilers, either of 
iron or of copper, are placed to one fire, though some have but two, and the small planters only one. The 
boilers are filled with the juice, and as it ripens, or becomes more inspissated, by a constant but regular 
fire, it is ladled forward from boiler to boiler, and fresh juice is added to that farthest from the fire, till the 
