Aloes Aloe Or Lign-Aloe
Aloes Aloe Or Lign-Aloe [1]
an Oriental tree, having a fragrant wood, but entirely different from the plant from which the bitter resin aloes is obtained, used in medicine. The Hebrew words ahalim' and ahaloth' ( אֲהָלוֹת אֲהָלִים ) occur in Psalms 45:8, "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes (Sept. Στακτή ) , and cassia;" Proverbs 7:17, "I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with cinnamon and Aloes" (Sept. omits); Song of Solomon 4:14, "Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and Aloes (Sept. Άλώθ ), with all the chief spices." From the articles which are associated with them (both names indicating the same thing), it is evident that it was some odoriferous substance probably well known in ancient times. (See Aromatics).
This tree or wood was called by the Greeks Ἀγάλλοχον , and later Ξυλαλόη (Dioscor. 1:21), and has been known to moderns by the names of aloe-wood, paradise-wood, eagle-wood, etc. Modern botanists distinguish two kinds; the one genuine and most precious, the other more common and inferior (Ainslie, Materia Indica, 1, 479 sq.). The former (Cynometra Agallocha, or the Aquilaria Ovata of Linn.) grows in Cochin- China, Siam, and China, is never exported, and is of so great rarity in India itself as to be worth its weight in gold (Martins, Lehrbuch Der Pharmakognosie, p. 83 sq.). Pieces of this wood that are resinous, of a dark color, heavy, and perforated as if by worms, are called Calambac; the tree itself is called by the Chinese suk-hiang. It is represented as large, with an erect trunk and lofty branches. The other or more common species is called garo in the East Indies, and is the wood of a tree growing in the Moluccas, the Excoecaria agallocha of Linnaeus (Oken, Lehrb. d. Naturgesch. II, 2:609 sq.; Lindley, Flora Med. p. 190 sq.). The leaves are like those of a pear-tree; and it has a milky juice, which, as the tree grows old, har
