THE LIGN ALOES, LIGNUM ALOES, ALOE V r OOD, &c. 
45 
traveller, and from the advantages of its new climate, might have become natural- 
ised, and shedding its seeds, have formed natural woods in the various countries to 
which it had been brought. Although this supposition does not admit of proof, 
still it seems no more improbable than that of various species of Exotic Oaks, and 
other trees found in this country in the present day, having now become so 
naturalised, that but for the records of their introduction, we might be led to claim 
them as the indigenous productions of our soil. 
The Aquilaria Agallochum forms a broad spreading tree. Leaves alternate, 
simple ; obcordate, entire, without dots or stipules. Flowers yellowish green, united, 
produced on axillary racemes. Calyx tubular, somewhat top-shaped, coriaceous, 
with a five-cleft limb ; segments spreading, ovate, acuminate, with an imbricated 
cestivation ; orifice furnished with scales. Stamens ten, all fertile, short ; scarcely 
exserted; anthers long, two-celled. Ovary superior, sessile, downy, compressed, 
two-celled. Style very short. Stigma conical, large, simple. Capsule pyriform, 
two-valved, two-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell. 
Although this is one of the trees which affords the fragrant substance so much 
esteemed ; yet its wood is stated by travellers who have examined it, to be, in its 
natural healthy state, white, and almost scentless, The importations of a rich dark 
brown colour, which possess so fine and peculiar an aroma, are said to be the produce 
of trees, which are old and diseased ; "the oleaginous particles stagnate, and concrete 
into resin in the inner part of the trunk and branches, by which the natural ap- 
pearance of the wood is altered, so as to be of a dark colour and of a fragrant 
smell At length the tree dies, and when split, the resinous part is taken out. 
It seems to contain little else than that camphoraceous matter common to many 
other plants. From its bitter taste it has the name of aloes." * It was also called 
by the ancients Calambac. 
None of the species of Aquilaria can boast of much beauty as flowering plants, 
although as trees they are far from being devoid of interest; except however in 
Botanical Gardens, or where private collections of curious plants are desirable, they 
can scarcely be recommended for general cultivation. They require the temperature 
of the stove, and the same treatment as other common stove plants ; and will no 
doubt strike freely from cuttings planted in pots of sand, and placed under a 
handglass in heat. 
The Aloexylon Agallochum forms a large, upright growing tree. Leaves 
simple, alternate, lanceolate, acuminate, entire, with short petioles. Flowers pro- 
duced in terminal panicles. Calyx of four sepals, acute, deciduous, three upper 
ones nearly equal, lower one nearly twice the length of the others, falcate, incurved. 
Petals five, unequal, upper large, two lateral ones narrow, two lower ones somewhat 
broader. Stamens ten, distinct, spreading. Ovary compressed. Style filiform. 
Legume woody, falcate, one-seeded. Seed oblong, curved, arillate. 
This species, like the Aquilaria or Eagle-wood, is said to owe its exquisite 
* Don's Syst. 
