he root is called koot, and the
Arabic synonym is said to be _koost_. It grows in immense abundance on
the mountains which surround Cashmere. It is a gregarious herb, about
six or seven feet high, with a perennial thick branched root, with an
annual round smooth stem, large leaves and dark purple flowers. The
roots are dug up in the months of September and October, when the
plant begins to be torpid; they are chopped up into pieces, from two
to six inches long, and are exported without further preparation. The
quantity collected, according to Dr. Falconer, is very large,
amounting to about two million pounds per annum. The cost of its
collection and transport to a mercantile depot in Cashmere, is about
2s. 4d. the cwt. The commodity is laden on bullocks and exported to
the Punjaub, whence the larger portion goes down to Bombay, where it
is shipped for the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and China; a portion of
it finds its way across the Sutlej and Jumna into Hindostan Proper,
whence it is taken to Calcutta, and bought up there with avidity under
the name of putchuk. The value is enhanced at Jugadree, on the Jumna,
to about 16s. 9d. or 23s. 4d. per cwt. In the Chinese ports it
fetches nearly double that price the cwt. The Chinese burn the roots
as an incense in the temples of their gods, and they also attach great
efficacy to it as an aphrodisiac. The imports into Canton in 1848 were
414 piculs; in 1850, 854 piculs; valued at 5,150 dollars. In Cashmere
it is chiefly used for the protection of bales of shawls from insects.
The exports from the port of Calcutta were, in 1840-41, 19,660 maunds;
in 1841-42, 12,847; in 1847-48, 2,0501/4; in 1848-49, 2,1103/4;--worth
about L1,500 annually.

Specimens of amboyna wood, the odoriferous sandal wood from Timor,
clove wood, and other choice woods from the Moluccas and Prince of
Wales Island, were sent home to the Great Exhibition in 1851.

LIGNUM ALOES, the eagle wood and Calambak of commerce, yielding an
aromatic perfume, is furnished by the _Aquilaria malaccensis_, and
_agallocha_, in Silhet, an ornamental evergreen shrub. A very high
artificial value is placed on the better qualities of this product by
the natives of the East; the best quality being worth about L14 the
picul of 133 lbs.

This fragrant wood is probably the lign aloes of the Bible.

Incense to the value of nearly one million and a quarter francs was
exported from Alexandria in 1837.

Calambak or eagle wood, the t