Article: Aloe vera. (Au Naturel)

When I asked an old Italian woman with an extensive collection of plants how to grow aloe (Aloe barbadensis), she looked at me with a puzzled expression and said she had never heard of that plant. I pointed out an aloe vera sitting right there on her sunny windowsill, and she said, "Oh, you mean the miracle plant." I thought her description was quaint.

A few days later, I burned my finger pretty severely on a hot iron. As I headed for the refrigerator and the medicine cabinet to find an ice cube and some ointment, my usual remedies, I remembered what the old woman had said about using aloe on burns. Oh well, I thought, she just might know what she's talking ...

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