ALOE VULGARIS. Liliacea. THE AFRICAN ALOE. Class VII. HEXANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. Gen. Char. Corolla erect, with a spreading, smooth, and nectariferous bottom. Filaments inserted into the receptacle. Spe. Char. Flowers spiked, in corymbs, drooping, peduncled, subcylindrical. Stem-leaves tooth, embracing, sheathing. The root is perennial, strong and fibrous; the flower-stems rise from two to six feet in height, varying according to the richness of the soil; they are smooth, erect, of a silvery green color, and toward the top beset with bracteal scales; the leaves are first spreading, then ascending, of a glaucous green color, somewhat mottled with darker spots, flat on the upper surface, convex beneath, and armed with hard reddish spines, distant from each other, numerous, perpendicular to the margin, narrow, tapering, thick or fleshy, succulent, beset at the edges with spring teeth; the flowers are produced in terminal spikes, and of a purple or reddish color; calyx none; the corolla is monopetalous, tubular, nectariferous, cut into six narrow leaves, which separate at the mouth; the filaments are six, which are tapering, yellowish, inserted into the receptacle, and furnished with oblong orange-colored anthers; the germen is oblong, supporting a simple slender style, about the length of the filaments, and terminated by an obtuse stigma; the capsule is oblong, and divided into three cells, three valves, and contains many angular seeds. The Aloe Vulgaris is a native of south-eastern Europe and the north of Africa. It is cultivated in Italy, Sicily, Malta, and especially in the West Indies, where it contributes largely to furnish the Barbadoes Aloes. The U. S. Dispensatory, in its description of this species of Aloe, probably gives as good, if not a better, than any of the others. It remarks that "the proper aloetic juice exists in longitudinal vessels beneath the epidermis of the leaves, and readily flows out when these are cut transversely. The liquid obtained by expression from the parenchyma is mucilaginous, and possessed of little medicinal virtue. The quality of the drug depends much upon the mode of preparing it. The finest kind is that obtained by exudation and subsequent inspissation in the sun. Most of the better sorts, however, are prepared by artificially heating the juice which has spontaneously exuded from the cut leaves. The chief disadvantage of this process, is the conversion of a portion of the soluble active principle into an insoluble and comparatively inert substance, through the influence of an elevated temperature. The plan of bruising and expressing the leaves, and boiling down the resulting liquor, yields a much inferior product, as a large portion of it must be derived from the mucilaginous juice of the parenchyma. The worst plan of all is to boil the leaves themselves in water, and to evaporate the decoction. The quality of the drug is also affected by the careless or fraudulent mixture of foreign matters with the juice, and the unskilful management of the inspissation." Medical Properties and Uses. The different varieties of this plant are all similar in their mode of action. They are all cathartic, operating very slowly but certainly, having a peculiar affinity for the large intestines. Their action appears to be directed rather to the muscular coat than to the exhalent vessels, and the discharges which they produce are therefore seldom very thin or watery. In full doses they quicken the circulation and produce general warmth. Liliacea. ALETRIS FARINOSA. Class VI. HEXANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. STAR GRASS. Gen. Char. Corolla tubulous-ovate, six-cleft at the summit, rugose, persistent. Stamens inserted into the base of the segments. Style triangular, separable into three. Capsule opening at the top, three-celled, many-seeded. Spe. Char. Flowers pedicellate, oblong-tubular. Corolla when decaying, nearly smooth. Leaves broad lanceolate. The root is perennial, small, crooked, branched, externally blackish and internally brown; the leaves are sessile, lanceolate, entire, pointed, very smooth, longitudinally veined, and of unequal size, the largest being about six inches in length; from the middle of the leaves a flower-stem rises to the height of one or two feet, nearly naked, with remote scales, which sometimes become leaves. It terminates in a slender scattered spike; the flowers stand on very short pedicels, and have minute bractes at the base; the calyx is wanting; the corolla is tubular, oblong, divided at the summit into six spreading segments, of a whitish color, and presenting, when old, a mealy or rugose appearance on the outside. The Aletris Farinosa is a native of this country, and is found growing in almost all parts of the United States, in fields and on the borders of woods, flowering in June and July. The likeness here presented was taken by the author while residing in the middle part of the state of Massachusetts, some five years since, where he found growing in considerable quantities not only this, but many other very rare and valuable medicinal plants, all of which would well repay the labour of gathering and preparing for market. Medical Properties and Uses. The root, which is the officinal portion, possesses tonic, expectorant, sudorific, narcotic, and purgative properties, which renders its use in most cases objectionable, and sometimes hazardous. From experience I have found this to be a powerful and dangerous substance, drastic even in small doses, and in larger ones it causes vertigo and bloody stools. Notwithstanding the dangerous properties of this plant, it has been introduced into medical practice as a substitute for the helonias dioicia, (Unicorn,) and extensively used throughout the United States. The root, which is intensely bitter when tinctured in alcohol, becomes turbid upon the addition of water. The decoction is moderately bitter, but much less so than the tincture, and affords no precipitate with the salts of iron. In small doses it appears to be simply tonic, and may at times be advantageously employed for similar purposes with other bitters of the same class. When given in large doses it produces nausea and vertigo. The powder is frequently administered as a tonic in the dose of eight or ten grains. It also enters into the various preparations prepared by some physicians in the treatment of prolapsus, general weakness, and obstructions. |