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to ptya, but the colour of the juice alone agrees with the 
description of the plant by Dioscorides. 
Costus, of which three kinds are described, Arabian, 
Syrian, and Indian, the produce of these several countries; 
is called kust by the Arabs, with koostus assigned as the 
Greek, koshta as Syriac, and kooth as the Hindee name. 
By the latter I obtained two kinds in the bazars of N. 
India, one called koost-tulkh and koost-hindee, Indian or 
bitter Costus, and the other koost-sheeren, also koost- 
buhree and Arabee, that is, Arabian or sweet Costus, this 
having a fragrant odour, resembling that of iris root ; but I 
was unable to trace out either the country or the plant 
which produced it, though it was said to be brought into 
India from Caubul and Cashmere. On comparing this 
sweet Costus with the specimens of Materia Medica I col- 
lected in Calcutta, I cannot distinguish it from a root well 
known in the market there by the name of Puchuk. This 
identity was long ago ascertained by Garcias ab Horto, as he 
says, "Est ergo Costus dictus Arabibus Cost aut Case- 
in Guzerate Vplot, in Malaca ubi ejus plurimus est usus, 
Pucho, et inde vehitur in Sinarum regionem." — " Nascitur 
circa Guzarate, inter Bengalea, Delli, et Cambaya, in 
Mandou et Chitar." Clus. Exot. lib. 1. c. 35. On referring 
to Maculloch's Com. Diet, and Milburn's Orient. Com., 
I find Putchook described as the " root of a plant growing 
in Sinde, and imported in considerable quantities from the 
north-west coast of India into China. When burned it 
yields a fine smell. The Chinese beat it into a fine powder, 
which they burn as incense in the temples of their gods." 
Another product of India known to the ancients, and 
still employed by the Chinese as an incense, is Agallochum, 
Lign-aloe, or eagle-wood, pao-d'agila, and pao-cTaquila 
of the Portuguese, names, no doubt, derived from the 
Malayan agila, which in Sanscrit is agura, Hindee aggur, 
