Pure aloes (Aloetine) 85.00 Ulmate of potash 2.00 Sulphate of lime 2.00 Carbonate of potash } -------------lime } traces.  Phosphate of lime } Gallic acid .25 Albumen 8.

The true Socotrine aloes is the produce of A.  Socotrina, which grows abundantly in the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean.  Lieutenant Wellstead says, the hills on the west side of the island are covered for an extent of miles with aloe plants.  The aloe grows spontaneously on the limestone mountains of Socotra, from 500 to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea.  The produce is brought to Tamarida and Colliseah, the principal town and harbor for exports.  In 1833, the best quality sold for 2s. a pound, while for the more indifferent the price was 13d.  The value is much impaired by the careless manner in which the aloes is gathered and packed.  Aloes once formed the staple of its traffic, for which it was chiefly resorted to; but only small quantities are now exported.  It was formerly shipped by the way of Smyrna and Alexandria, but is usually now brought by the way of Bombay; Melinda, on the Zanzibar coast, and Maccula on the Arabian shore, furnish the greater part of that sold in Europe as Socotrine aloes.  It comes home in chests or packages of 150 to 200 lbs. wrapt in skins of the gazelle, sometimes in casks holding half a ton or more.  It is somewhat transparent, of a garnet or yellowish red color.  The smell is not very unpleasant, approaching to myrrh.  Socotrine aloes, although long considered the best kind, is now below Barbados aloes in commercial value.

About two tons were imported from Socotra in 1833, but a much larger quantity could be obtained if required.

The price of Socotrine aloes in the Liverpool market, in the early part of 1853, was 30s. to L6 the cwt.; of Cape, 30s. to 32s.

East Indian, or Hepatic aloes.—­ The real hepatic aloes, so called from its liver color, is believed to be the produce of A.  Arabica, or perfoliala, which grows in Yemen in Arabia, from whence it is exported by the way of Bombay to Europe.  According to Dr. Thomson and the “Materia Medica,” it is duller in its color than the other kinds, is bitterer, and has a less pleasant aroma than the Socotrine aloes.  It should not be liquid, which deteriorates the quality.

A.  Indica—­a species with reddish flowers, common in dry situations, in the north-west provinces of India, is that from which an inferior sort of the drug is produced.  It is obtained in Guzerat, Salem, and Trichinopoly, and fetches a local price of 2d. to 3d. a pound.  In the Bombay market, Socotrine aloes fetches wholesale 16s. to 20s. the Surat maund of 41 lbs., and Maccula aloes only 9s.

Barbados aloes, is the produce of A. vulgaris, or A. barbadensis, a native of the Cape colony, and is often passed off for the Hepatic.  It is brought home in calabashes, or large gourd shells, containing from 60 to 70 lbs. each, or more.  It is duskier in hue than the East Indian species, being a darkish brown or black, and the taste is more nauseous and intensely bitter.