SOCOTRINE ALOES. 95 
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The leaves are sivord-shaped, fleshy, smooth, full of juice, 
of bluish- green colour; and beset at the edges with strong 
spines. 4/te flower-stems rise to the height of three or four 
feet, are smooth, erect) and have at the top a spike of flower n 
of purple or reddish colour, the stamens of which have oblong 
orange-coloured anthers. 
The true Socotrine aloes are imported into this coun- 
try wrapped in skins ; and when pure have a bright 
surface, and are in some degree pellucid. In the lump 
they have a yellowish red colour, with a purplish 
cast ; and, when reduced to powder, are of a golden 
yellow. Their taste is bitter and disagreeable, but 
somewhat aromatic; and their smell is not unpleasant. 
Barbadoes aloes, common aloes, or hepatic aloes, are 
the dried juice of a variety of the Socotrine aloes, 
which is cultivated in Barbadoes and Jamaica. Of this 
we import three kinds : one in gourd shells; an inferior 
kind, in pots ; and another, still worse, in casks. 
In the cultivation of aloes it is requisite that the 
plants should grow for two or three years before the 
juice is procured from them. The operation of col- 
lecting the juice is performed in different ways. Dr. 
Browne tells us that labourers go into the field with 
knives and tubs ; and that cutting off the largest and 
most succulent leaves close to the stalk, they immedi- 
ately put them into the tubs in an upright position, that 
the liquor may drain from the wounds. When this is 
nearly all discharged, they take the leaves out singly, 
and clear them of any juice that may adhere to them ; 
and the liquor is then put into shallow flat-bottomed 
vessels, and dried gradually in the sun, until it acquires 
a proper thickness to be poured out or ladled into the 
gourd shells which are to contain it. What is thus ob- 
tained is called Socotrine aloes, and is the clearest and 
most valuable of any. An additional quantity of juice 
is obtained by pressing the leaves. 
In some places the plants are pulled up by the roots, 
and, after having been carefully cleansed from earth or 
other impurities, they are sliced arid cut in pieces, into 
