OF PRODUCTION OF ALOES-WOOD. 79 



Those authors who have endeavoured to obtain 

 correct information of this vegetable on the spot, 

 and whose descriptions (though neither clear nor 

 scientific) come nearest to truth, are the above 

 Rumphius and the famous Portuguese naturalist 

 Garcia de Horta, the latter of whom describes 

 it in his treatise on spices*, which appeared 

 first in Portuguese and was afterwards translated 

 into other languages. Many other authors, an- 

 cient and modern, mention the Aloes-wood as an 

 object of profit to merchants, as an article used in 

 temples, as a perfume, &c. ; but as relative to 

 Botany .it has not hitherto been sufficiently attended 

 to. It was known to be the produce of a tree, 

 but the tree itself and the manner in which it pro- 

 duces the Aloes-wood was unknown. Some at- 

 tempted to describe the plant without having seen 



are the same. As for the fruit, the representation in Run-.ph. Herb. 

 Amb. certainly does not agree with the description, the author of the 

 above paper gives of it, but approaches nearer to the figure of Cayanilles 

 fDis. Bctan. t. 224^ given from a fruit which was brought from Indb 

 by Sonncrat. Rumphius owns that the fruit which he represented had 

 not been found growing upon tbe branch of the tree which he received, 

 but only tied to it. T. 



* Garc ab Storto de Arom. I. 1. C. 16. 



