Page:Floras Lexicon-1840.djvu/30



LOE. Class 6,. Order:. The is said to thrive best in the desert, and is only attached to the soil by a very slender fibre. Its taste is very sharp and bitter. So sorrow drives us away from the world, detaches our hearts from the earth, and fills them with bitterness. This plant derives its support almost entirely from the air, and assumes very singular and fantastic shapes. Le Vaillant found many species very numerous in the deserts of Namaquoise; some of them six feet long, which were thick and armed with long spines. From the centre of these a light twig shoots forth to the height of a tall tree, all garnished with flowers. Others exalt themselves like the cactus, bristling with thorns. Others, again, are marbled, and seem like serpents creeping upon the earth. Brydone saw the ancient city of Syracuse entirely covered by great aloes in flower; their elegant branches giving to the promontory which bounded the coast, the appearance of an enchanted forest. These plants also prosper well in our gardens. The collection in the museum of Paris is said to be the most complete in the world. These magnificent and monstrous members of the vegetable kingdom are also found in barbarous Africa. There they grow upon the rocks in arid and sandy soil, in the midst of that burning atmosphere in which scarce aught but tigers and lions can breathe and live. Let us bless Providence, then, for raising in our climate verdant bowers over our heads, and for spreading under our feet the soft carpet of grass, ornamented with saffron, violets, and daisies.