LIGN-ALOE
428
LIGN-ALOE
Bartholin (in Vyacarana, p. 205) likewise distinsyuishes three sorts. '"one common, very odorous, and of j^reat priee, called ayhil; the black, which is termed kdr-aghhil or kal-uf/am ; the third, producing a Hower, named nw- f/ariiii, properly marKjahjam or maU'KjandMijaL"
There i.s considerable confusion among naturalists in their attempts to identify the exact tree which yields the far-famed wood. " Dr. Roxburgh states that uguru is the Sanscrit name of the incense or aloe-wood, which in Ilindostanee is called lu/iir, and in Persian aod-hindi, and that there is little doubt that the real calamhac, or afiallochum of the ancients, is yielded by an immense tree, a native of the mountainous tracts east of and southeast from Silhet, in about 24° of N. latitude. This plant, he says, cannot be distinguished from thriving plants, exactly of the same age, of the Garo de Malacca, received from that place, and growing in the garden of Calcutta. He further states that small cpiantities of agallochum are sometimes imported into Calcutta by sea from the eastward, but that such is always deemed inferior to that of Silhet (Flora Ind. ii, 423). The Guro de Malacca was tirst described by Lamarck {Encyclopedie Methodique, i, 47 sq.), from a specimen presented to him by Sonnerat as that of the tree which yielded the hois d'aiffle of commerce. Lamarck named this tree Aqui- laria Malaccemis, which Cavanilles afterwards changed mmecessarily to .1 quilaria ovata. As Dr. Eoxburgh found that his plant belonged to the same genus, lie named it Aquilaria agallochum, but it is printed Agal- loc/ri in Ins Flora Tndica, probably by an oversight. He is of opinion that the A gal lochum secundariiim of Rura- pbius i^IIerb. Ami. ii, 34, t. 10), which that author re- ceived under the name oi Agallochum Malacceiise, also belongs to the same genus, as well as the Swfu of Kiempfer {Aman. Exot. p. 903), and the Ophispei-mum sinense of Loureiro. This last-named missionary de- scribes a third plant, which he names Aloexylum agal- lochum, representing it as a large tree growing in the lofty mountains of Champava, belonging to Cochin China, about 13° of N. lat., near the great river La\'um, and producing calamhac (^Flo)-a Cochin Chinensis, edit. Wildenow, i, 327). This tree, belonging to the class and ortler Decandria monogynia of Linnrous, and the nat- ural family of Leguminosce, has always been admitted as one of tlie trees yielding agallochum. But, as Loureiro himself confesses that he had only once seen a muti- lated branch of the tree in flower, which, by long cai- riage, had tlie petals, anthers, and stigma much bruised and torn, it is not impossible that this may also belong to tlie genus Aquilaria, especially as his tree agrees in so many points with that descrilied by Dr. Roxburgh. Rumphius has described and tigured a third plant, which he named A rhor excacans, from ' Blindhout,' in conse- quence of its acrid juice destroying sight, whence the generic name of Excwcaria ; the specilic one of agallo- chum he ajiplied because its wood is similar to, and often substituled for agallochum, and he states that it was sometimes exported as such to Europe, and even to China. This tree, the Excwcaria agallochum, of the Liniiffian class and order Diacia triandria, and the nat- ural family of Euphorbiacece, is also very common in the delta of tlie (Jangcs, where it is called Geria; 'but the wood-cutters of the Sundcrbunds,' Dr. Roxburgh says, ' who are the people best acquauited with the nature of this tree, report the pale, white, milky juice thereof to be liigldy acrid and very dangerous.' The only use made of tlie tree, as far as Dr. Roxburgh could learn, was for cliarcoal and firewood. Agallochum of any sort is, he believed, never found in this tree, which is often the only one ((uoted as that yielding agila-wood; but, notwitlistandiug the negative testimony of Dr. Rox- burgli, it may, in particular situations, as stated by L'umiiliius, yield a substitute for that fragrant and long- famed wood. In Arabian authors numerous varieties of agalloclium arc mentioned (Celsus, llierobof. p. 143), Persian authors mention only three: \. Aod-i-hindi ; that i5, the Indian; 2. Aod-i-chini, or Chinese kind
(probably that from Cochin China) ; 3. Sumunduri, a term generally applied to things brought from sea, which may have reference to the inferior variety from the In- dian islands. In old works, such as those of Bauhin and Ray, three kinds are also mentioned: \. Agallochum prwsfantissimum, also called Calamhac; 2. A . Ojficina- rum, or Palo de Aguilla of Linschoten ; 3. A. sylvestre, or Aguilla brava. But, besides these varieties, obtained from different localities, perhaps from different plants, there are also distinct varieties, obtainable from the same plant. Thus, in a MS. accomit by Dr. Roxburgh, to which Dr. Royle had access, it is stated, in a letter from R. K. Dick, at Silhet, that four different qualities may be obtained from the same tree : 1st, Ghta-ki, -which sinks in water, and sells from 12 to IG rupees per seer of 2 lbs.; '^d, Doim, G to 8 rupees per seer; 3d, Simula, which floats in water, 3 to 4 rupees; and, 4th, Churum, which is in small pieces, and also floats in water, from 1 to 1^ rupees per seer, and that sometimes 80 lbs. of these four kinds may be obtained from one tree. AU these tuggu7--trees, as they are called, do not produce the aggur, nor does ever}' part of even the most productive tree. The natives cut into the wood until they observe dark-colored veins yielding the perfume ; these guide them to the place containing the aggur, which generally extends but a short way through the centre of the trunk or branch. An essence, or cdtur, is obtained by bruising the wood in a mortar, and then infusing it in boiling water, when the attur floats on the surface. Early de- cay does not seem incident to all kinds of agallochum, for -we possess specimens of the wood gorged with fra- grant resin {Illustr, Him. Bot. p. 173) which show no symptoms of it, but stiU it is stated that the wood is sometimes buried in the earth. This may be for the purpose of increasing its specific gravity. A large spec- imen in the museum of the East-India House displays a cancellated structure in which the resinous parts remain, the rest of the wood having been removed, apparently by decay" (Kitto). Notwithstanding the uncertainty respecting the identity of some of the above-described varieties, we have, at all events, two trees ascertained as yielding this fragrant wood — one, Aquilaria agallochum, a native of Silhet, and the other A . ovafa or Malaccen- sis, a native of Malacca, although it is still not clear that thev are anvthing more than local variations of the