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"And the navy also of Hiram...brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug-trees."

2 CHRONICLES ix. 11.

"And the king made of the algum-trees terraces to the house of the Lord, and to the king's palace, and harps and psalteries for singers."

REVELATIONS Xviii. 12.

"All thyine wood." [2 CHRON. ii. 8.]

"The tree, called in Scripture the Algum, Almug, or Thyine tree, is still met with under a different name in the north of Africa. The wood is of a dark nut-brown colour, close-grained, and very fragrant. It was used in building the temple at Jerusalem, and the beautiful palaces of King Solomon, and is mentioned by ancient writers as being particularly desirable, from its durability, for all such buildings. The Romans had tables made from this wood in their banqueting-halls, and 'they were valued according to the veins, knots, and colours which variegated them; and were called from those accidents,' tiger, leopard, peacock's feather tables, &c. We read of one table of this kind which the Emperor Tiberius had plated all over with one of the precious metals. This tree yields the gum sandarach, used in preparing parchment; and therefore very necessary to the Jews, who used so large a quantity of that article in the copies of their Scriptures, and in their phylacteries. St. John mentions this tree as among the precious things that shall no longer attract the merchants of the earth to fallen Babylon."-See Scripture Herbal, pp. 2—7.

ALOES, LIGN ALOES.

NUMBERS XXiv. 6.

"As the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted."

PSALM xlv. 8.

"All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia."

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SONG OF SOLOMON iv. 14.

...Aloes, with all the chief spices."

JOHN xix. 39.

"...Nicodemus...brought a mixture of myrrh and

aloes." [PROV. vii. 17.]

ALOES.

"This plant itself is not mentioned in Scripture; and all the texts in which aloes are named relate to the gummy substance procured from the aloe, either by making incisions, and carefully collecting the juice that exudes, or by bruising the fleshy leaves. In either case the liquor is set by in an airy place in the shade, and carefully skimmed for many days successively; when it is sufficiently thick, it is laid out in the sun to dry, and then packed in skins or boxes. The taste is intensely bitter, but the smell very agreeable. It was one of the drugs used by the ancients, particularly the Egyptians, for embalming the dead. The strong sweet odour, and the bitterness combined, kept off destructive reptiles

and insects; and myrrh, having the same qualities, was employed, together with aloes, for the same purpose.

"The modern medicinal aloes are collected from various species of aloe; some growing in Asia...some in the West Indies...but the Socotrine aloe is the best. It is a beautiful plant, growing to the height of five or six feet, with vivid green leaves, and a flower of scarlet, white, and green. It owes its name to the island of Socatra, lying at the mouth of the Dead Sea; and probably the method of collecting and managing the juice, which gives the Socotrine aloe the superiority over others, is a relic of the ancient Egyptian priests and embalmers, who made so much use of it, and possibly might have their agents on the island, near as it is to Egypt, for the purpose of buying it up.

"Some species of aloe*...grow in desert sandy places, where no water is. They are, nevertheless, the sign of refreshment to the traveller; for their long thick leaves are each gathered round the stem, forming a cup, which collects the rain and dew in such quantities, that the thirsty may drink, and the weary rest and drink again, of this desert fountain."-Scripture Herbal, pp. 11-15.

"Great quantities of the common aloe grow upon the plains that surround Muscle Bay. The inspissated juice of this plant was once an article that afforded a considerable profit to those who were at the trouble of collecting and preparing it, but the price is now reduced so low, about threepence the pound, that it is no longer considered as an object worthy the attention of the inhabitants. Three pounds are as much as one person can collect and prepare in one day.”—BARROW's Southern Africa. "We passed...many species of the aloe, some throwing out their clusters of flowers across the road, and others rising above the rest in spikes of blood-red blossoms not less than fifteen feet in height."-BARROW's Africa.

More correctly Agave, but in common speech called Aloes, though improperly.

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"The tree producing the fragrant aloe-wood was long unknown to modern naturalists. At length European merchants and missionaries discovered that it was produced in India, and in the Eastern Islands. A Romish missionary had a branch of the tree sent him from Cochin China, where he was informed it grew among the mountains in the neighbourhood of the great river Laoum; a situation agreeing most remarkably with the words of the text: As gardens by the river's side; as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted.'

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"At length some young trees, which had been sent from the mountainous part of Silhet to the botanic garden at Calcutta, produced flowers and fruit in the years 1809 and 1810.

"The lign aloe is a native of the mountainous parts of the east and south-east of Silhet, where it grows to

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