"Aloe barbadensis (Liliaceae) "cultivated on the island of Socorta in the
time of Alexander the Great"

There are several errors in that statement.

The cultivated Aloe from Socotra is Aloe perryi Balfour, f..

The correct name for Aloe barbadensis Miller is Aloe vera (L.) Burman, f.
and the species is probably native to the Arabian peninsula.

The genus Aloe is a member of the family Asphodelaceae (including the
Aloaceae) not the Liliaceae as it is presently defined.


"donald j haarmann" wrote in message
...
WH Lewis, MPF Elvin-Lewis
Medical Botany : Plants affecting man's health
Wiley-Interscience 1977

Lists quite a few e.g., Aloe barbadensis (Liliaceae) "cultivated on the
island of Socorta
in the time of Alexander the Great; Bryonia africana (Cucurbitaceae)
"little
used because of the danger of poisoning" [Picky-picky-picky!]; Croton
species
(Euphorbiaceae) "among the most drastic and irritant purgatives"; &c.



--
donald j haarmann
------------------------------
At a Scottish wedding the bridegroom, as was
customary at a wedding breakfast, arose to
respond to the toast of the health of the bride. He
was not used to public speaking and, words
failing him, he contented himself with the response,
"Well, there's naething wrang with the woman" ; and
in proposing the toast of "Applied Science" he
should like to point the moral of this story, and say
that there was nothing wrong with it ; that it was in a
state of absolute health, and in this country, as well
as in others, it was in a state of marvelous fertility,
and as each branch of Applied Sciences was apparently
capable of producing any number of other branches of
Applied Science, as time went on they might expect
a somewhat numerous family.

Sir William Ramsay K.C.B.. D.Sc., LL.D., lF.R.S.
Bradford, Wednesday, July 15, 1903.