Chapter ALLYGOLE to ALOO BOKHARA of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

older writers on Pharmacy.”—(Francis Adams, Names of all Minerals, Plants, and Animals desc. by the Greek authors, etc.)

(a) c. A.D. 70.—“The best Aloe (Latin the same) is brought out of India.… Much use there is of it in many cases, but principally to loosen the bellie; being the only purgative medicine that is comfortable to the stomach.…”—Pliny, Bk. xxvii (Ph. Holland, ii. 212).

(b) “HlqÎ dÎ kai Nikódhmos…. fÎrwn migma smurnhs kai alóhs wsÎi litras Îkatón. ”—John xix. 39.

c. A.D. 545.—“From the remoter regions, I speak of Tzinista and other places, the imports to Taprobane are silk Aloes-wood (), cloves, sandal-wood, and so forth.”— Cosmas, in Cathay, p. clxxvii.

[c. 1605.—“In wch Iland of Allasakatrina are good harbors faire depth and good Anchor ground.”—Discription in Birdwood, First Letter Book, 82. (Here there is a confusion of the name of the island Socotra with that of its best-known product —Aloes Socotrina).]

1617.—“.… a kind of lignum Allowaies.”—Cocks’s Diary, i. 309 [and see i. 3].

ALOO, s. Skt.—H. alu. This word is now used in Hindustani and other dialects for the ‘potato.’ The original Skt. is said to mean the esculent root Arum campanulatum.

ALOO BOKHARA, s. P. alubokhara, ‘Bokh. plum’; a kind of prune commonly brought to India by the Afghan traders.

[c. 1666.—“Usbec being the country which principally supplies Delhi with.… many loads of dry fruit, as Bokara prunes.…” —Bernier, ed. Constable, 118.]

1817.—

“Plantains, the golden and the green,
Malaya’s nectar’d mangosteen;
Prunes of Bokhara, and sweet nuts
From the far groves of Samarkand.”

Moore, Lalla Rookh.