Aloe
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Aloe. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a genus of lily-like plants in some respects resembling a century plant . Perhaps fifty different kinds have been described, most of them natives of the Cape Colony region. They are related to the daffodil and the narcissus. Aloes have a mass of long, fleshy, lanceolate, spiny leaves set on a short stem. They are much in demand for decorative purposes, especially in public buildings. The natives of the west coast of Africa make cords and nets of the fibers of the leaves, and a species found in Jamaica furnishes the natives with material for clothing. The "American aloe," or century plant, is not an aloe, but an agave, which see. The aloes of the druggist, the juice of the aloe thickened by evaporation, is an old remedy known to the Greeks in the time of Christ. The juice of one aloe makes a beautiful violet dye. The juice of aloes was used formerly as a preservative in embalming. See Daffodil ; Agave ; Narcissus Aloe plant
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
any species of the genus described under botany (below), or even of one, such as agave, with a close analogy to it. The American aloe is the agave americana, an amaryllid. In botany, a genus of plants belonging to the order liliaceæ, or lily-worts, and constituting the typical genus of the section called aloine. The species are succulent herbs, shrubs, or even trees, with erect spikes or clusters of flowers. They ALOE are used in the West Indies for hedges; the juice is purgative, and the fibers are made into cordage or coarse cloth.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's Encyclopedia in 1910 counted "perhaps fifty different kinds" and grouped aloes with the lilies, daffodils and narcissi; today the genus is placed in the family Asphodelaceae rather than Liliaceae, and more than 500 species are recognised, with the tree aloes split off in 2014 into separate genera such as Aloidendron. Both entries treat the plant chiefly as ornamental, hedging or a source of cordage and a purgative drug — Collier's in 1921 notes only that "the juice is purgative." The twentieth century instead built a global industry on the clear leaf gel of one species, Aloe vera, now in sunburn creams, cosmetics and drinks. The old purgative use went the other way: in 2002 the US Food and Drug Administration removed aloe from over-the-counter laxatives for want of safety data.
Written for this edition, 2026.