2(>4 



NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



186O-62. and that it does not possess even the most well-known character 

 Lign Aloes. f that drug intense bitterness. Aloes wood is the produce of 

 Aquilaria Agallocha, Eoxb., a tree of vast size, growing in the 

 mountainous parts of Coch in-China, the Laos country, and ad- 

 joining regions, and extending westward into Silhet and Assam. 1 

 The wood in its ordinary state is not valued as a drug, being 

 pale in colour, light, and inodorous. But under certain conditions 

 a change takes place in portions of both trunk and branches, 

 the wood becoming gorged with a dark, resinous, aromatic juice, 

 and acquiring a greater specific gravity. It is these portions of 

 the wood that constitute the drug in question, which is esteemed 

 the more in proportion as it is ponderous and abounds in resinous 

 matter. In Silhet, the collection of aloes wood is a precarious 

 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 

 Aggur. the aggur, as the valued wood is called. This is done by 

 chopping off the bark and into the wood, until 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 carrying 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 allowing 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. I have specimens of aloes wood in which this 

 process has evidently been adopted. Aloes wood is sorted by 

 the collectors into various qualities, the finest of which, called 

 GhurTcee. Ghurkee, is worth in Silhet from 12s. to 16s. per pound. 2 As 

 may readily be imagined, the drug occurs in pieces of extremely 

 irregular shape and size ; I have seen none exceeding a pound 



1 Garroo or Eagle Wood collected in the interior of the island of Hainan 

 and bartered by the Aborigines, Trade Reports for 1867 (Appendix). 



2 Aquilaria Agallocha and A. 'malaccensis, both occur in Sumatra and 

 also according to Teysmann in Banka. Miquel, Prod. Flora Sumatrance, 1 860. 



