Linnaan Society. 



said to produce the Calambac or Agallochum of the ancients and that 

 which he describes. He notices the descriptions given by Lamarck 

 and Cavanilles, which he thinks, as far as they go, agree well with 

 the plant of the Botanic Garden ; as do those of Rumphius, making 

 some allowance for the imperfection of his figures. Ksempfer's 

 figure and description also exactly correspond with young specimens 

 in the Botanic Garden sent from Goalpara by Dr. Buchanan and 

 from Silhet by Mr. Smith ; and a description of the fruit by Mr. 

 James Cunningham is quoted as very exact. Dr. Roxburgh gives 

 his reasons for believing that not only the Ophispermum Sinense of 

 Loureiro, but also the Aloexylum Agallochum of that author, are both 

 of the same genus, if not the very same species, with the plant from 

 Silhet. There runs indeed so uncommon a coincidence through the 

 whole of these notices as to induce him to believe that they all 

 relate to the same identical object. He concludes by retracting what 

 he had previously said, in his account of Amyris Agallocha, as far as 

 relates to its yielding Calambac, which he acknowledges to have been 

 founded on erroneous information. 



Dr. Roxburgh's memoir was accompanied by some remarks by 

 the late H. T. Colebrooke, Esq., F.L.S., consisting chiefly of refer- 

 ences to and extracts from various Oriental authors, in relation to 

 this fragrant wood, the countries in which it is found, the tree from 

 which it is derived, its various kinds, and the processes used in ex- 

 tracting the oil. On the subject of the etymology of the word Agal- 

 lochum,, he observes that it is not right to derive it from the Arabic, 

 which on the contrary is confessedly borrowed from the Greek, that 

 is to say, from the Agallochon of Dioscorides. Neither is its origin 

 to be sought in the Hebrew Ahalim and Ahaloth, as proposed by 

 Salraasius, since it is more obvious to deduce it from the language 

 of the country whence the drug was brought ; and the Indian name 

 Aguru, or with the Sanscrit pleonastic termination ca, Aguruca, is 

 much nearer to the sound of the Greek term. The Portuguese Pao 

 de Aquila, he adds, is an undoubted corruption either of the Arabic 

 Aghdluji or of the Latin Agallochum ; and it is by a ludicrous mistake 

 that from this corruption has grown the name of Lignum Aquila, 

 whence the genus of the plant now receives its botanic appellation. 

 The paper was accompanied with a coloured drawing of the young 

 plant, and of a flowering branch, together with a detailed ati^ftly^is 

 of the parts of fructification. »o {^? \ 



March 4^ — N. Wallich, Esq., M.D., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Read " Notes on Bdellium." By B. A. R. Nicholson, Esq., M.D., 

 of the Bombay Army. Communicated by the Secretary. 



Dr. Nicholson states that the tree which he identifies as producing 

 the Bdellium of Greek and Roman authors, occurs in the hilly 

 districts of North-western India, where it is known to the natives 

 by the name of Googul. He extracts the account of Bdellium from 

 Ainslie's * Materia Indica,' and comments on some of the statements 

 therein contained. Thus, for example, Ainslie says that " all of this 

 gum-resin found in India is brought from Arabia, where the tree is 



