Spec. Plant. Willd. ii. 184. Cl. 6. Ord. 1. Hexandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Liliaceae. G. 659. Corolla erect, mouth spreading, bottom nectariferous.

Filaments inserted into the receptacle. Species 2. Aloe spicata. Spiked Aloe. ---------3. Aloe vulgaris. Common Aloe. Sibthorp, Flor. Graec.

1. Aloe spicata.3

Officinal. Aloe, Lond. Aloes Extractum, Edin. Aloe Socotorina, Dub. Aloes. Extract of Aloes.

Syn. Sue d'Aloes (F.), Glausinde Aloe (G.), Azevre Succorrina (Portug.), Aloe (7.), Aloe (S.), De doorbladige Aloe (Belg.), Aloe (Russian), Elwa (H.), Sibber (Pers.), Musebber (A.), Corriabolum ( Tarn.).

1 It is this sulphureted oil which blackens silver plate in which onions are placed, and which occasions the disagreeable odour of this bulb in putrefying.

2 Fourcroy and Vauauelin, Ann. de Chym. lxv. 161.

Dioscoridis? It is probable, from the researches of Dr. Sibthorpe, that the only aloe of the ancients, medicinally used, was the A. vulgaris.

The spiked aloe is undoubtedly the species which yields the best extract brought from the Cape of Good Hope; and it is also supposed to yield the extract brought from the island of Zocotora; which was formerly the only place of export for the best aloes, thence named Socotrine aloes. De Candolle, however, refers it to a distinct species, which he terms Aloe Socotorina. It grows abundantly in the interior of the Cape, particularly at Zwellendam, near Mossel Bay; and in the kingdom of Melinda, whence the best aloes are brought. The stem is round, about four inches in diameter, leafy at the top, and rising three or four feet in height. The leaves are spreading, about two feet long, subverticillate, broad at the base, gradually drawn to a point, channelled, acute, with remote teeth. The flowers spread horizontally, in very close spikes. Under each flower is a single ovate, acute, broad, membranaceous bracte, white, with three green streaks, and a little shorter than the corolla. This is bell-shaped, and six-petalled: the three inner segments are white, marked with three green lines, not connected together, ovate, blunt, and broader than the three outer; which are connected with them at the base, and resemble them, but are narrower and less concave.

The flower contains a large portion of a purple honey-juice. The seeds, which are numerous, with a membranaceous appendage attached to each, are contained in a superior capsule.

At the island of Zocotora the leaves are cut off close to the stem, then cut in pieces, and the juice allowed to run out: this is allowed to remain at rest for forty-eight hours, during which time a feculent matter is deposited: after which the supernatant liquor is poured off into flat dishes, and evaporated in the sun. At Zwellendam, in the month of July, the leaves are pulled, then cut into pieces, the juice expressed, and inspissated by means of heat.

The real Socotrine aloes, which are now scarce in the market, and which come from the island of Socotora, or Zocotora1, near the Straits of Babelmandel, are brought to this country, by way of Smyrna and Malta, in chests and casks. Those from the Cape are brought in similar packages. The greater part of what are now sold as Socotrine aloes are brought from Bombay. The Bombay aloes are rather duller and browner, but in other respects have nearly the same characters as the Socotrine, which are sometimes mixed with the Indian. They are imported in casks containing from two to eight hundred weight, and sometimes in skins.2

1 Zocotora is an island subject to the Prince of Hadecamaut, an Arabian province contiguous to Yemen.

2 Mr. Barrow states, that the quantity of Cape aloes sent to London, from 1799 to 1802 inclusive; was. 341,927 lbs. Vide Travels in Africa,

Qualities.-The real Socotrine aloes have a peculiar aromatic odour, not unlike that of the russet apple decaying, which is developed when the specimen is breathed upon: the taste is a very permanent intense bitter. It is in pieces of a mottled colour; namely, reddish yellow mixed with brown, glossy as if varnished: breaking with a smooth conchoidal fracture. The thin edges and small fragments are reddish, or golden yellow, and semi-transparent. It softens in the hand, and is adhesive; yet it is sufficiently pulverulent; and the powder has a bright golden yellow hue.

The Cape aloes have a stronger and more disagreeable odour than the Socotrine or Hepatic, for what is sold as Socotrine consists of the finest specimens of the Hepatic : the taste is nearly the same. The outside of the pieces is more friable, has more of a yellow cast, and is less glossy; but the inside is apt to continue soft and pliable. The colour of the powder is a beautiful greenish yellow, resembling gamboge, but less bright. They are imported in chests and casks.

2. Aloe vulgaris.1

Officinal. Aloe hepatica; Extractum, Edin. Aloe hepatica, Dub. Extract of the Common Aloe, or Barbadoes Aloes.

The British Pharmacopoeias formerly considered the plant which yields the Barbadoes aloes as a variety of the aloe per-fpliata; but Sir E. Smith, the learned editor of Sibthorpe's Flora Graca, has marked the above-named plant, which is a distinct species, as the one that Sloane describes, in his History of Jamaica, as producing the Barbadoes extract

The month of March is the period for cutting the aloes in the island of Barbadoes. The leaves are cut off close to the stem, and disposed in tubs, in such a manner that the juice runs out. After a sufficient quantity of it is collected, it is exposed to a heat in copper boilers; and, as it becomes more inspissated by a constant and regular fire, it is ladled from one boiler to another, and fresh juice added, until that in the last, which is called the teache, acquires the consistence of honey; when it is poured into calabashes, and hardens by age. It is brought home in these calabashes, or large gourd-shells, each of which contains from sixty to seventy pounds weight. They are often passed off as Socotrine aloes.