"Lignum aloes is the wood of
the Aquilaria agallocha, and is chiefly known as sinking incense. The
Pen-ts'au Kang-mu describes it as follows: 'Sinking incense, also
called honey incense. It comes from the heart and the knots of a tree and
sinks in water, from which peculiarity the name sinking incense is
derived.... In the Description of Annam we find it called honey incense,
because it smells like honey.' The same work, as well as the Nan-fang
Ts'au-mu Chuang, further informs us that this incense was obtained in all
countries south of China, by felling the old trees and leaving them to
decay, when, after some time, only the heart, the knots, and some other
hard parts remained. The product was known under different names, according
to its quality or shape, and in addition to the names given above, we find
fowl bones, horse-hoofs, and green cinnamon; these latter names,
however, are seldom used." - H.C.]
The fine eagle-wood of Champa is the result of disease in a leguminous
tree, Aloexylon Agallochum; whilst an inferior kind, though of the same
aromatic properties, is derived from a tree of an entirely different
order, Aquilaria Agallocha, and is found as far north as Silhet.
The Bonus of the G.T. here is another example of Marco's use, probably
unconscious, of an Oriental word. It is Persian Abnus, Ebony, which has
passed almost unaltered into the Spanish Abenuz.
