ALOES, LIGN ,ALOES (al'Oz, or lIg-naPoz), (Heb. d-haw-leem' ; Gr. dX04.
al-d-ay'). This is doubtless the lignunt aloes of the ancients, the products of Aquilaria Agallacha (Roxburg) and other trees of the same genus, growing in India, China and Arabia. It was a tree of very great value. From its blossom comes fruit, like a large pea, white and red. The juice of the leaves is drawn by cutting them with a knife, which afterwards is received in bottles (Num. xxiv :6; Ps. xlv :8). It is worth more than its weight in gold: and is esteemed a sovereign cordial against fainting fits, and other nervous disorders. From this account the reader will perceive the rarity and value of this perfume, implied in the notice taken of it by the spouse in the Canticles (iv:14) and the boast of the prostitute (Prow. vii:17). The sandal-wood approaches to many of its prop erties; and is applied to similar uses, as a per fume at sacrifices, etc. The aloes of Syria, Rhodes, and Candia, called Aspolathus, is a shrub full of thorns ; the wood of which is used by perfumers, after they have taken off the bark, to give consistency to their perfumes. It must not, therefore, be confounded with the bitter and nauseous aloes famed only as a medicine.
In the English name Alae, for the plant now under consideration, and for the officinal Aloes, we have an instance of two very different plants, of widely diverse properties, bearing the same name. It is then quite possible that the tree of
Numbers might be totally different from the aromatic substance of the other passages. In Eng. the labiate genus Melissa is called balm. Impatiens is called balsam...Papultts balsantifera, L., var. caudicans, is called balm of Gilead, a very different plant from the balm of Gilead of Scripture, and the word balm is applied to many diverse substances. There is nothing, however, to prevent the supposition that the tree of Num bers is that which produced the substance of the other passages. It is true that the tree is one of tropical Arabia, India, or China. But Balaam's prophecy was uttered in full view of the tropical valley of the Jordan, where the climate would have made it quite possible to cultivate these trees. There is nothing to forbid the idea that this and other trees not now known in Palestine were cultivated in the then wealthy and populous Jordan Valley. At least twenty-five distinctly tropical wild plants are indigenous in this valley. (G. E. Post, Hastings' Bib. Diet.)