nest aloes. The bitter, resinous juice is stored
up in greenish vessels, lying beneath the skin of the leaf, so
that when the leaves are cut transversely, the juice exudes, and
is gradually evaporated to a firm consistence. The inferior kinds
of aloes are prepared by pressing the leaves, when the resinous
juice becomes mixed with the mucilaginous fluid from the central
part of the leaves, and thus it is proportionately deteriorated.
Sometimes the leaves are cut and boiled, and the decoction
evaporated to a proper consistence. This drug is imported in
chests, in skins of animals, and sometimes in large
calabash-gourds, and although the taste is peculiarly bitter and
disagreeable, the perfume of the finer sorts is aromatic, and by
no means offensive. It is common in tropical countries.

22. ALSOPHILA AUSTRALIS.--This beautiful tree-fern attains a height of
stem of 25 to 30 feet, with fronds spreading out into a crest 26
feet in diameter. These plants are among the most beautiful of all
vegetable productions, and in their gigantic forms indicate, in a
meager degree, the extraordinary beauty of the vegetation on the
globe previous to the formation of the coal measures.

23. ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS.--The Pali-mara, or devil tree, of Bombay. The
plant attains a height of 80 or 90 feet; the bark is powerfully
bitter, and is used in India in medicine. It is of the family of
_Apocynaceae_.

24. AMOMUM MELEGUETA.--Malaguetta pepper, or grains of paradise;
belonging to the ginger family, _Zingiberaceae_. The seeds of this
and other species are imported from Guinea; they have a very warm
and camphor-like taste, and are used to give a fictitious strength
to adulterated liquors, but are not considered particularly
injurious to health. The seeds are aromatic and stimulating, and
form, with other seeds of similar plants, what are known as
cardamoms.

25. AMYRIS BALSAMIFERA.--This plant yields the wood called Lignum
Rhodium. It also furnishes a gum resin analogous to Elemi, and
supposed to yield Indian Bdellium.

26. ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE.--The cashew nut tree, cultivated in the
West Indies and other tropical countries. The stem furnishes a
milky juice, which becomes hard and black when dry, and is used as
a varnish. It also secretes a gum, l