PUTCHUK, OR COSTUS.

The substance called costus was highly prized by the ancients, and specimens may be met with at a few of the London drug-houses.  It has been shown by Dr. Falconer to be the produce of a genus of the thistle tribe, to which he has given the name of Aucklandia.  The root of A.  Costus is supposed to be the Costus Arabicus, on the following grounds:—­It corresponds with the descriptions given by the ancient authors, and is used at the present day for the same purposes in China, as costus was formerly applied to by the Greeks.  The coincidence of the names—­in Cashmere the 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.