9 8 
Aloe. 
The larger kinds appear pre-eminent in all these properties. 
Rousseau speaks of the beauty of the American aloe, or agave, 
as botanists term that species. St. Pierre, as before mentioned, 
speaks of its large and beautiful vanilla-scented flowers, and 
the very name of agave, which is derived from the Greek, sig¬ 
nifies “admirable” or “glorious.” 
In Wood’s “Zoography,” it is stated that the Mahommedans, 
especially those resident in Egypt, regard the aloe as a sacred 
symbol, and, on their return from a pilgrimage to Mecca, one 
of their holy cities, hang it over the street door, as a sign that 
they have performed that religious duty. They also consider 
that this plant scares away evil spirits and apparitions from 
entering the house ; and, what is still more singular, the native 
Christians and Jews share the superstition, or at all events 
participate in the custom, and suspend it over their doorways, 
as any one walking through the streets of Cairo may perceive. 
The aloe, which, owing to its lofty stem, is one of the most 
gigantic flowers known, until recently was supposed to blossom 
only once in a century, and then to explode with the noise of a 
cannon. Modern investigation has proved the fallacy of these 
once popular notions ; but, true it is, that, although in hot 
climates these plants will flower in a few years, in these colder 
countries they require a much longer space of time, and some, 
indeed, never attain the desirable honour. The flowers are 
mostly of a greenish yellow colour, continue in bloom for some 
months, and surmount a stalk thirty feet high. The leaves, 
although generally of a dark green, are sometimes striped with 
red, white, or yellow. Their evergreen nature obtained from 
our ancestors the name of “ sea-ayegreene ” for the plant. 
Of the leaves of the aloe are made, by the negroes in Sene¬ 
gal, excellent ropes, which are not liable to rot in water, and 
also turn the plant to account in many other useful ways ; 
whilst, as for the poor in Mexico, they, it is said, derive almost 
every necessary of life from a species of it. They call this 
wonderful production the pit£, and use it, says Baron Humboldt, 
as a substitute for the hemp of Asia, the paper-reed of Egypt, 
and the vine of Europe. The ancient manuscripts of Mexico, 
which have so excited the curiosity of the learned, and afforded 
historians and antiquarians so much knowledge of the manners 
and customs of that persecuted people, are chiefly inscribed 
