Note 72 — THE HISTORIE OF THE MIGHTIE KINGDOME OF CHINA, WHEREIN SHALBE DECLARED, OF THE RELIGION THAT IS AMONGST THE PEOPLE, AND OF THEIR IDOLS THAT THEY DO WORSHIP, AND OF OTHER THINGS TOUCHING THAT THEY DO VSE ABOUE NATURE.

This is the well-known lignum aloes of commerce. In some remarks by the late H. T. Colebrooke, Esq., on a paper of the late Dr. Roxburgh's recently read at the Linnean Society, occurs the following observation: "The Portuguese pao de aguila is an undoubted corruption, either of the Arabic aghaluji, or of the Latin agallochum; and it is by a ludicrous mistake that from this corruption has grown the name of lignum aquilæ, whence the genus of the plant now receives its botanic appellation, aquilaria agallocha." Roxb.