TH YMELJEA CE^. 221 



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which he figures. This is the Chin-heang of the Fun-isaou- 

 kang-miih or great Chinese HerbaL (See Hanhury Science 

 Papers, p. 263.) His two kinds of false aloe wood he attributes 

 to Michelia Champaca and Exccecaria AgaUocha. 



Roxburgh and other botanists have examined the Aquilaria 

 in Sylhet, and recently an Aquilaria has been ascertained to be 

 the tree which produces aloe wood in the islands of the Mergui 

 Archipelago. Gramble says that ^^ Ahjau (the Burmese name 

 for aloe wood) is the most important produce of the forests of 

 South Tenasserim and the Mergui Archipelago. It is found in 

 fragments of various shapes and sizes in the centre of the tree, 

 and usually, if not always, where some former injury has been 

 received. 



Aloe wood is used throughout the East as an incense and as 

 a perfume, and was formerly used as a medicine in Europe 

 for the same diseases for which it is still prescribed in 

 India. 



Colkctmi. — In Sylhet, the collection of aloe wood is a preca- 

 rious and tedious business ; those engaged in it proceed some 

 days^ journey into the hilly districts, where they fell any trees 

 they may find, young or old, and then^ on the spot, search them 

 for the Agar, as the valued wood is called. This is done by 

 chopping off the bark, and into the wood, lintil they observe dark 

 coloured veins, indicating the proximity of wood of valuable 

 quality, which generally extends but a short distance from the 

 centre of a trunk or branch. In this manner a whole tree is 

 searched through, the collectors carrjdng away only such pieces 

 as are rich in odoriferous resinous matter. In some districts it 

 is customary to facilitate the extraction of the resinous wood by 

 burying portions of the tree in moist ground, or by allowdng 

 the entire tree to remain a length of time after it is cut down, 

 the effect of which is to cause decay in the non-resinous wood, 

 and thus render it easily removable by an iron instrument. 

 Aloe wood is sorted by the collectors into various qualities, 

 the finest of which, called Gharki, is worth in Sylhet from 

 6 to 8 rupees per pound. {Sanbury Science I^apers,) 



