362 A L O 
the walls are painted after the great church in Milan. Aln¬ 
wick is 306 miles north-by-weft of London, thirty north of 
Nevvcaftle, and twenty-fix fouthof Berwick. Lat.55. 24. 
Ion. 1. 10. 
ALO'A, in Grecian antiquity, a feftival kept in honour 
of Ceres by the hufbandmen, and fuppofed to referable 
our harveft home. 
ALO'E,/. [from aX?, Gr. the fea.] In botany, a genus 
of the hexandria monogynia clafs, ranking in the natural 
order of lilia, or liliaceae. The generic characters are— 
Corolla: one-petalled, ereft, fexfid, oblong; tube gib¬ 
bous; border fpreading, fmall; nedtareous at bottom. 
Stamina: filaments awl-fhaped, as long as the corolla or 
longer, inferted into the receptacle ; antherae oblong, in¬ 
cumbent. Piftillum : germ ovate ; ftyle fimple, the length 
of the ftamens ; ftigma obtufe, trifid. Pericarpium : an 
oblong capfule, three-furrowed, three-celled, and three- 
valved. Seeds: feveral, angular .—EJfential CharaElcr. 
Corolla ereft, with an expanded mouth, and a nedtareous 
bafe ; filaments inferted into the receptacle. 
Species. 1. Aloe dichotoma, or fmooth-ftem’d tree aloe : 
branches dichotomous, leaves fword-fhaped, ferrate. Na¬ 
tive of the Cape of Good Hope. i 
2. Aloe perfoliata, orperfoliate aloe : ftem-leaves tooth¬ 
ed embracing Iheathing, flowers in corymbs drooping pe- 
duncled fubcylindrical. Of this fpecies there are fixteen 
varieties noticed by different authors. The leaves are 
about four inches broad at their bafe, where they are near 
two inches thick; they have a few indentures on their 
edges; are of a beautiful green colour, and when young 
are fpotted with white. The flower-ftem rifes near three 
feet high, and the flowers ftand in a flender loofe fpike, 
with very fliort peduncles, and hang downwards; they 
are of a bright yellow' colour, and the ftamens ftand out 
beyond the tube. This, though generally known in the 
fhops by the name of Barbadoes aloe, is very common in 
the other iflands cf America, where the plants are propa¬ 
gated on the pooreft land, to obtain the hepatic aloes, 
which are brought to England, and ufed chiefly for horfes. 
Preparatiorrof Aloes in the Ifland' of Barbadoes. In the 
month of March, when the plants are a year old, the la¬ 
bourers carry a parcel of tubs and jars into the field, and 
each takes a flip or breadth of it, and begins by laying 
Hold of a bunch of the blades, as much as he can con¬ 
veniently grafp with one hand, while with the other he 
cuts it juft above the furface of the earth, as quickly as 
poflible, (that the juice may not be wafted,) and then places 
the blades in the tub, bunch by bunch, or handful by 
handful. When the firft tub is thus packed quite full, a 
fecond is begun (each labourer having turn) ; and, by the 
time the fecond is filled, all the juice is generally drained 
out of the blades in the firft tub. The blades are then 
lightly taken out, and thrown over the land byway of ma¬ 
nure, and the juice is poured out into a jar. The tub is 
then filled again with blades, and fo, alternately, till the 
labourer has produced his jar full, or about four gallons 
and a half of juice, which is often done in fix or feven 
hours, and he has then the remainder of the day to him- 
felf, it being his employer’s intereft to get each day’s ope¬ 
ration as quickly done as poflible. Although aloes are 
often cut in nine, ten, or twelve, months, after being 
planted, they are not in perfeftion till the fecond or third 
year: and they will be produftive for a length of time, 
as ten or twelve years, or even for a much longer time, if 
good dung, or manure of any kind, is ftrewed over the 
field once in three or four years, or oftener if convenient. 
The aloe-juice will keep for feveral weeks without injury. 
It is therefore not boiled, till a fufficient quantity is pro¬ 
vided, to make it an objedt for the boiling-houfe. In the 
large way, three boilers, either of iron or copper, are 
placed to one fire, though feme have but two, and the 
fmall planters only one. The boilers are filled with the 
juice ; and as it ripens, or becomes more infpiffated, by a 
conftant but regular fire, it is ladled forward from boiler 
io boiler, and frclh juice is added to that fartheft from the 
A L O 
fire, till the juice in that neareft the fire (by much the 
fmalleft of .the three, and commonly called by the name 
of tatch as in the manufactory of fugar) becomes of a 
proper confiftency to be flapped, or ladled out into gourds, 
or other fmall veffels ufed for its final reception. The 
proper time to flap, or ladle, it out of the tatch, is when 
it is arrived at what is termed a refin height, or when it 
cuts freely or in thin flakes, from the edges of a fmall 
.wooden Dice, that is dipped from time to time into the 
tatch for that purpofe. A little lime-water is ufed by fome 
aloe-boilers, during the procefs, when the ebullition is too 
great. As to the fun-dried aloes, (which are mod ap¬ 
proved for medicinal purpofes,) very little is made in Bar¬ 
badoes. The procefs is however very fimple, though ex¬ 
tremely tedious. The raw juice is either put into blad¬ 
ders, left quite open at top, and fufpended in the fun, or 
in broad fhallow trays of wood, pewter, or tin, expofed 
alfo to the fun, every dry day, until all the fluid parts are 
exhaled, and a perfect refin formed, which is then packed 
up for ufe, or for exportation. 
The Succotrine aloe, from whence the beft fort of aloe 
for ufe in medicine is produced, has long, narrow, fuccu- 
lent, leaves, which come out without any order, and form 
large heads. The ftalks grow three or four feet high, 
and have two, three, or four, of thefe heads, branchmg 
out from it: the lower leaves fpread out on every fide^ 
but the upper leaves turn inward toward the centre; the 
flowers grow in long fpikes, upon ftalks about two feet 
high, each Handing upon a pretty long footftalk; they are 
of a bright red colour tipped with green, appearing ge¬ 
nerally m the winter feafon. 
3. Aloe arachnoides, or cobweb aloe: ftemlefs, leaves 
three-cornered, cufped, ciliate; flowers in a fort of fpike, 
upright cylindrical. 
4. Aloe margaritifera, or pearl aloe: ftemlefs, leaves 
three-cornered cufped papillofe, flowers in racemes droop¬ 
ing cylindrical. The pearl aloe is of humble growth, 
and the leaves come out on every fide (without order) near 
the ground; they are thick, triangular at their ends, and 
clofely ftudded with white protuberances, whence the 
name. There is a fmaller fort which has been long pre- 
ferved in the Englifh gardens. Thefe flower in feveral 
feafons of the year. 
5. Aloe verrucofa, or warted or pearl-tongue aloe: 
ftemlefs, leaves fword-fhaped (harp papillofe diftich, flow¬ 
ers in racemes reflex club-fhaped. The flowers of this 
kind grow on pretty tall ftalks, and form loofe fpikes, each 
hanging downward : they are of a beautiful red colour, 
tipped with green. This fort produces off-fets in plenty, 
and flowers at different feafons of the year. 
6 . Aloe carinata, or keel-leaved aloe: ftemlefs, leaves 
acinaciform papillofe, flowers in racemes drooping curved. 
7. Aloe maculata, or fpotted aloe. Native of the Cape 
of Good Hope ; flowers in Auguft. 
8. Aloe lingua, or tongue aloe. Tongue aloe grows 
with its leaves near the ground, which are about fix inch¬ 
es in length. The flowers are in flender loofe fpikes, each 
hanging downwards, of a red colourat bottom, and green 
at the top. There is a variety of this, with leaves much 
more fpotted. 
9. Aloe plicatilis, or fan aloe : almoft ftemlefs, leaves 
tongue-fhaped even diftich, flowers in racemes pendulous- 
cylindrical. Fan aloe grows to the height of fix or feven 
feet, with a ftrong Item, toward the upper part of which 
are produced two, three, or four, heads, compofed of long, 
compreffed, pliable, leaves, of a fea-green colour, entire, 
and ending obtufely; thefe are placed in a double row, 
lying over each other with their edges the fame way. The 
flowers are produced in fhort loofe fpikes, are of a red 
colour, and appear at different times of the year. 
10. Aloe variegata, or partridge-breaft aloe: almoft 
ftemlefs, leaves in three ranks painted channelled, angles 
cartilaginous, flowers in racemes, cylindrical. This is a 
low' plant, feldom rifing above eight inches high. The 
leaves are triangular, and turn back at their extremity: 
a they 
