LIGN-ALOES. 287 
(Loureiro) acknowledges, in Willdenow’s edition of his ‘ Flora 
Cochinchinensis,’ to have only once seen a mutilated branch of 
the tree in flower, “ which, by long carriage, had the petals, 
anthers, and stigma much bruised and torn.” ‘As not much cre- 
dence can be placed in the natural character of a plant written 
under such circumstances, and as the natives of Cochin-China may 
have supplied him with the fruit of some other tree for that of his 
Aloexylum, Roxburgh, in his description of the genus Agquilaria, 
was inclined to think that the trees producing the aloes-wood of 
Cochin-Chinaand the Agar from the vicinity of Silhet were the same. 
On the other hand, there is the opinion of the celebrated botanist 
DeCandolle, who classed the Aloexylon Agallochum in Leguminose. 
In any case it is an acknowledged fact that this perfumed wood is 
found in the greatest perfection in the mountainous country to the 
east of the Gulf of Siam, including Camboja and Cochin-China 
between the 8th and 14th degrees of N. lat., and that the quality 
found near Silhet in Bengal is inferior to it. 
The Malayan name specifically for the wood of Aloexylon Agal- 
lochum is Kalambak. 
The perfume extracted from the swellings produced on the tree 
where branches have been broken off is known im Cochin-China 
under the name of Tramtoc. A tree producing Lign-aloes has also 
been found on the island of Hainan. 
Large forests of trees yielding “ Kalambak” are found in 
Campar, on the eastern side of Sumatra, and opposite to 
Malacca. 
A wood having a strong resemblance in perfume to Kalambak 
or Agallocha (and according to Rumphius hardly distinguishable 
from it) is yielded by the Excecaria Agallocha, L., a small tree 
belonging to the family of the EHuphorbiacee, found along the 
coast of Burmah, from Chittagong to Tenasserim. Its name 
Excecariais due to the fact that it contains an acid lactescent sap, 
which the labourer has to beware of in cutting the wood, as if he 
happens to get a drop of it in the eyes it is apt to produce blind- 
ness. The colour of the wood is of a rusty brown. It is hard 
and brittle as glass, very bitter, very resinous, and very inflam- 
mable. In comparing this to Agallocha, Rumphius evidently re- 
ferred to the perfume alone, as genuine fresh Agallocha is soft 
enough to be easily scratched by the thumb-nail, although harden- 
ing by age. 
