The Rev. Lane has attempted to produce a book in which the information is accessible and useful to both novices and experts with two descriptions of each variety: one containing field characteristics for those with little botanical knowledge, and a second more technical and detailed one for those with extensive knowledge of the genus.

Stewart Lane came to Malawi in 1965 as an English teacher andquickly became interested in the genus ALOE as something uniquely African and completely different from anything in his native Iowa. Since then, he has taken whatever time was free from his work as a teacher, priest, fellowship leader, author and columnist to travel extensively in Malawi and elsewhere in southern Africa collecting and begging specimens for his garden and, within Malawi, gleaning much hithero unpublished information about the aloes there.