448 



Rumphius, making some allowance for the imperfection of his figures. 

 Kaempfer's figure and description also exactly correspond with young 

 specimens in the Botanic Garden sent from Goalpara by Dr. Bu- 

 chanan 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 references 

 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 extracting the 

 oil. On the subject of the etymology of the word Agallochum, 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 Salmasius, 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 San- 

 scrit pleonastic termination ca, Aguruca, is much nearer to the sound 

 of the Greek term. The Portuguese Pao de Aqnila, he adds, is an 

 undoubted corruption of the Arabic Aghaluji or of the Latin Agallo- 

 chum ; and it is by a ludicrous mistake that from this corruption has 

 grown the name of Lignum Aquiltc, whence the genus of the plant 

 now receives its botanic appelation. 



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 producingthe 

 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 Ainslic's 'Materia 



