DR. ROXBURGH ON THE GENUS AQUILARIA. 205 



This is intended for a caution against employing that from which the essential oil has 

 been already extracted, for fraudulent dealers sell the refuse of the wood after the oil has 

 been drawn from it. The process of extraction consists in macerating in water and then 

 distilling. The produce of distillation, on cooling, yields the essential oil. Some put a 

 few almonds with the residuum and extract the oil by inversion. This is termed Chuwah- 

 agar. It is not so fragrant as the genuine Chuwah, obtained without the addition of 

 almonds, from the raspings of Aloe-wood which have not been distilled. Some again mix 

 raspings of Sandal-wood, and proceed to distil, and then collect the essential oil from the 

 produce of the distillation when cold. This likewise is less fragrant than the purer kind. 



" The author of the * Akhtiyarat-badui ' has said, that it comes from Bandar Chineh, 

 situated at a distance of ten days from Java ; and this is exceedingly scarce, so that it is sold 

 for its weight in gold. It appears to have no smell, but when it is held in the hand and 

 becomes warm, it sweats and diffuses a most exquisite fragrance, which is very permanent. 

 This is true, and agrees with what the author has also learnt from oral information. The 

 name may be merely an error of the transcriber. 



" Another sort of wood, very similar in its appearance to the Vud, is found in Bengal, 

 and is sold for it to the unwary. It is named Tagar*." 



The close of this passage may excite a doubt whether the tree mentioned by Mr. Dick's 

 informant, under the name of Tagar, be really the same with that from which the Agar, 

 or Aloe- wood, is obtained. However, it is not unlikely, notwithstanding the general accu- 

 racy of the author of the • Mekhzen ul adveyeh,' that his distinction between the Tagar 

 and the TJud is unfounded. 



The four varieties of TJud noticed by this author correspond nearly to the four sorts 

 which the Arabian writers have described under similar denominations, taken, as observed 

 by them also, from names of places. In the Latin translation of Serapiof, the denomi- 

 nations are — 1. Indum, the best sort, black and ponderous, found in a certain island of 

 India called Finma. 2. Mondanum, so called from the Indian city Mondel. 3. Seificum, 

 from Seifi, situated at the distance of three days from the place which gives name to the 

 next sort. 4. Alcumericum, the kind least valued. In three out of four instances, the 

 correspondence of names is conspicuous and exact. 



Sanscrit writers have three varieties of the Aloe- wood : 1st, Aguru, the common sort ; 

 2nd, Cdldguru, or black aloes, being of a darker colour than the common kind ; 3rd, Man- 

 galyd, or Mangaly aguru, having the fragrancy of the Mallica, or Jasmmum Zambac. 



I know not whether it would be too strained an etymology to derive Mandali (Monda- 

 nwm of Serapio) from the Sanscrit Mangalyd. But there can be no hesitation hi de- 

 ducing the Malay name of the Aloe- wood, Garo%, as well as the denomination which it 

 bears in every provincial language of India, Agar, from the Sanscrit Aguru. Yet the 

 regular etymology of this term (from a privative, and guru heavy) does not convey a very 



* If this is the produce of a different tree, it may he that of Dr. Roxburgh's Amyris Agallocha, a native of the same 

 country, and said to yield Aloe-wood. — R. [But see p. 203.] 



f c. 197, as quoted by Garcias, Hist. Aromat. Go, and Rumphius, Herb. Amb. ii. 39. 



% Rumphius (Herb. Amb. ii. 39) supposes this to be the original of Pliny's Tarum ; but Salmasius denies that the 

 Tarum of Pliny is the Agallochum. 



