ALOE, in botany, a genus of the Hex andria Monogynia class of plants, with a liliaceous flower, consisting, of only one tubular. leaf, divided into six. deep seg ments at the edge ; its fruit is an oblong capsule, divided into three cells;and con taining a number, of angtilated seeds. There are 16 species. , Several species of this exotic plant are cultivated in the gardens of the curious, where they afford a very pleasing variety, as well by the odd shape of their leaves, as by the different spots with which they are variegated.
Some aloes are arhorescent, or divided into a number of branches, like trees ; others are very small, growing close to the ground_ The two Most considerable species are the aloe of America, and that of Asia ; the former on account of its beautiful flowers, and the latter for the drug prepared from it.
All the aloes are natives of h ot climates; and the place of growth of most of them is the Cape of Good Hope. The Hotten tots hollow out the trunk of the first spe cies, or A. dichotoma, to make quivers for their arrows ; and several of them are used for hedges. Among the Mahomet ans, and particularly in Egypt, the aloe is a kind of symbolic plant, and dedicated to the offices of religion : for pilgrims, on their return from Mecca, suspend it over their doors as an evidence of their having performed that holy journey. The super stitious Egyptians imagine, that ithas the virtue of off apparitions and evil spirits from their houses, and it is hung over the doors of Christians and Jews in Cairo for this purpose. They also distil from it a water, which is sold in the shops, and recommended in coughs, asthmas and hysterics. 'Ilasselquist mentions a per son who was 'cured of the jaundice in four days by taking about half a pint of it. The Arabians call it sabbara. The ne?roes,
as we are informed by Adanson, in his voyage to Senegal, make very good ropes of the leaves of the Guinea aloes, which are not apt to rot in water. M. Fabroni, as we learn from the Annales de Chimie, procured from the leaves of the aloe sue cotrina angustifolia, .a violet dye, which resists the action of oxygen, acids, and al kalies. This juice, he says, produces a superb transparent colour, which is high ly proper for works in miniature, and which, when dissolved in water, may serve, either cold or warm, for dyingsilk from the lightest to the . darkest shade : and he reckons it one of the most durable colours known in nature. Aloes_ was used among the ancients in embalming, to from putrefaction. Of this species of aloes, interpreters under stand that to have been which Nicodemns brought to embalm the body of Christ, JOhn xix. 3. Aloes, whose resinous part is not soluble in water, has been used as a preservative to ship's bottoms against the worms, to which those that trade to the East and West Indies are particularly subject. One ounce of aloes us sufficient for two superficial feet of plank; about 121b. for a vessel of 50 tons burthen, and 300 lb. for a first rate man of war. It may be incorporated with six pounds of pitch, one of Spanish brown, or whiting, and a quart of oil; or with the same pro portion of turpentine, Spanish brown and tallow. Such a coat, it has been said, will preserde a ship's bottom eight months, and the expense for a first rate ship will be about 18/. The same composition may be used in hot countries for preserving rafters, &c. from the wood-ant. The ef ficacy of aloes, as a defence against worms, has been controverted.