Aloe
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Song of Songs 4:14) — a well-known exotic plant, having broad and very thick leaves with thorns at the tips. The sap of this plant yields a medicinal remedy known as aloes, which, according to the testimony of naturalists, was also used in anointing the bodies of the dead. Nicodemus, at the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ, brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds (John 19:39); it was also used as a fragrance in homes. On the Cape of Good Hope and the islands of Sumatra and Ceylon are found various species of this tree.