Aloe is a genus of succulent plants consisting of about five hundred species and belonging to the Asphodelaceae family that also includes day lily, fox tail lily, and red hot poker.  The  genus is native to tropical and southern Africa, the Middle East and various islands of the Indian Ocean but are naturalized elsewhere and have become cultivated plants, especially aloe vera valued for its medicinal properties. The plants usually consist of a rosette of thick fleshy leaves and leafless stems with terminal clusters of flowers  in yellow, orange, pink or red.  The name, Aloe,  is derived from the Arabic word alloeh meaning bitter and shiny substance and refers to the latex in the leaves .

Meaning in the Language of Flowers: Religious superstition

Quote:

In climes beneath the solar ray,

Where beams intolerable day,

And arid plains in silence spread,

The pale-green Aloe lifts its head,

Delighting most its shade to fling,

Where streams run not, nor fountains spring.

Its mystic branch, at Moslem’s door,

Betokens travel long and sore

In Mecca’s weary pilgrimage;

Or hangs a visionary charm

To shield him from the secret harm,

The spectre’s form, the demon’s rage.

In frames adust, in fervid minds,

Its root thus superstition finds;

Where’er that noxious growth is found,

There spreads a moral desert round,

Where charity’s sweet font is dried,

And only bitter waters glide.

Oh! never may its gloomy shade

Darken my gate, my breast invade,

Proclaiming that the thorny path

of useless rigours I have trod,

With offered pangs to please a god,

Not of compassion, but of wrath.

Against the demon passion’s strife,

The phantom fears which shadow life,

Virtue, a better spell supply!

And trust in that Benignant Eye

Which wills not, in all earth’s wide sphere,

One idle pang, one needless tear.   Cruse

For more information go to:
The Language of Flowers: Introduction

By Karen