1112 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
are sometimes found irregular masses of harder, much darker- 
coloured-wood, with a honey-like scent, which constitute the 
Aloe or Eagle-wood of commerce Leaves 2-3Jin., thinly coria- 
ceous, shining, caudate, acuminate ; secondary nerves slender, 
with numerous, parallel, intermediate nerves ; petiole roin. 
Flowers white, in many-fid ; sessile or shortly peduncled, silky 
umbels ; pedicels slender, £in. long. Perianth persistent in fruit, 
yin. long, silky without, densely villous within. Fruit thinly 
velvety, l|-2in. long, obovoid, thinly coriaceous. 
Uses : —The fragrant resinous substance is considered cordial. 
It has been prescribed in gout and rheumatism. (Ainslie.) 
It is a delightful perfume, serviceable in vertigo and palsy, and 
the powder is useful as a restrainer of the fluxes and vomiting. 
In decoction, it is useful to allay thirst in fever. (Lourerio.) 
Au essential oil prepared from the wood is also used medi- 
cinally. The wood is a preventive against fleas and lice, and in 
the form of a powder is rubbed into the skin and the clothes. 
In medicine, aloes wood is considered a stimulant and cordial in 
gout, rheumatism and paralysis, also as a stimulant astringent 
in diarrhoea and vomiting. It is taken internally as a tonic in 
doses of ten to sixty grains. Under the name of agalocki, Celsus 
ranks it among medicines which invigorate the nerves. The 
wood has long had a place in the Materia Medica of the Pharma- 
copoeias of Europe, but it does not appear to possess any pro- 
perties that call for its admission to modern local practice. 
(Pharmacog. Ind.) 
N. 0. ELiEAGNACEiE. 
1101. Elwagnus hortensis, M. Bieb., h.f.b.i., v. 
201 . 
Vern . : — Sanjit (Afg.); Sirshing (Tibet); Shiulik (U.P.); 
Botvir, Gangu (Kashmir). 
Habitat: — Western Himalaya. 
A small, deciduous tree or large shrub, 12-30ft. high, often 
spinous, young, silvery. Bark light grey, thick, fibrous, smooth, 
