122 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



The ^g'M&mfl? present few useful species. The name comes, as is 

 known, from that of Eaglewood or Aloes of which the genus 

 Aquilaria furnished many commercial sorts. Among the odorous 

 and resinous woods, formerly burnt in temples and palaces, and 

 which in ancient therapeutics entered into a number of pre- 

 parations, the best known, which Guibouet calls the ordinary 

 Aloes wood of commerce, is probably the Garo of Eumphius, the 

 product of Aquilaria malacensis^ (fig. 67-69) or secundaria \'^ and 

 the same author thinks that it is A. Agallocha^ of India which 

 produces the Eaglewood or false Calambac* The Orientals highly 

 esteem these Aloes woods which their sacred books extol as 

 aromatic and of which many articles of cabinet work, chaplets and 

 trinkets are made. The Agallochum spurium of Eumphius^ is 

 Gonistylus hancanus.^ 



The flowers of the Thymelacece are often very odorous. Those of 

 D. odora^ japonica and Mesereum have a sweet and strong perfume 

 perhaps not sufficiently utilised. The industrial uses of the stems 

 are not numerous in Europe. In Switzerland, satin-like hats are 

 twisted from the wood of Garou and Bois-gentil, split into thin 

 layers. In Greece, brooms are made of the branches of Tartonraira. 

 Birca palustris has a supple and flexible wood ; its bark is used to 

 make baskets and cordage. The precocious flowers of certain 

 species, notably those of Daphne Mezereum, show themselves in the 

 middle of winter. Many Chinese and Japanese Daphnes flourish at 

 the same season in our cool conservatories, where are cultivated 

 a great number of Passerina, Gnidia, Dais and the very beautiful 

 Australian Pimelea. 



1 Lamk. Diet. i. 4S ; III. t. 350.— DO. Prodr. ' RoxE. Oat. Sort. Gale. 33 ; M. Ind. ii. 422.— 

 ii. 59.— TuRP. Diet. Sc. Nat. Atl. t. 248.— Eotle, 111. 173, t. 36, fig. 1.- Boxb. et Colebr. 

 Meibbn. Prodr. 602, n. 3 (not Benth.). — Trans. Linn. Soc. xxi. 199, t. 21. — Meissn. 

 A. Ovata Cat. Diss. vii. 377, t. 224.— Miq. Fl Prodr. 601, n. 1.— H. Bn. Diet. Encycl. Sc. Med. 

 Ind.-Bat. i. p i. 882 ; Suppl. i. 141. v. 754 {Lignum verum Agallochum, s. Agalugin-, 



2 DC. Prodr. ii. 59. — Meibbn. Prodr. 601, n. s. Calambac, s. Aggur, s. Aloes). 

 2. — Agallochmn Sicundarium Eumph. Berli. * Guib. op. eit. ed. 6, iii. 337. 

 Amloin. ii. 34, t. 10 (yar. ? of the preceding * Herb, Amboin. ii. 402. 

 species). " See p. 125, note 1. 



