Al′mug (or Al′gum) tree, names which occur in 1 Kings, x, 11, 12, and 2 Chron., ii, 8, and ix, 10, 11, as the names of trees of which the wood was used for pillars in the temple and the king's house, for harps and psalteries, &c. They are said in one passage to be hewn in Lebanon, in another to be brought from Ophir. They have been identified by critics with the red sandalwood of India. Some of them may possibly have been transplanted to Lebanon by the Phoenicians.
Almuñecar (a˙l-mu¨n-ye-kär′), a seaport of Spain, Granada, on the Mediterranean. Pop. 8000.
Al′nager, formerly, in England, an official whose duty it was to inspect, measure, and stamp woollen cloth.
Al′nus. See Alder.
Alnwick (an′ik), a town of England, county town of Northumberland, 34 miles north of Newcastle, near the Aln. It is well built, and carries on tanning, brewing, and a general trade. The town is famous for the curious ceremonies which take place there annually during the election of the common council (25th March). Alnwick Castle, residence of the Dukes of Northumberland, for many centuries a fortress
of great strength, stands close to the town. Pop. (1921), 6991.
Aloe (al′ō), the name of a number of plants belonging to the genus Aloë (ord. Liliaceæ), some of which are not more than a few inches, whilst others are 30 feet and upwards in height; natives of South Africa and Socotra; leaves fleshy, thick, and more or less spinous at the edges or extremity; flowers with a tubular corolla. Some of the larger kinds are of great use, the fibrous parts of the leaves being made into cordage, fishing nets and lines, cloth, &c. The inspissated juice of several species is used in medicine, under the name of aloes, forming a bitter purgative. The medicinal value of bitter aloes was known to the Greeks in the fourth century B.C. According to the Arabian historian Edrisi, the occupation of Socotra by the Macedonians was due to Aristotle's persuading Alexander the Great to secure the monopoly of the supplies of the drug. The drug is said to have been commended to Alfred the Great by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, but a direct trade in it between Socotra and Britain was opened only in the seventeenth century. The principal drug-producing species are the Socotrine aloe (A. Socotrīna); the Barbados aloe (A. vulgāris), first imported into Britain in 1693; the Cape aloe (A. spicāta), 1780; and Natal aloes, 1870; &c. A beautiful violet colour is yielded by the leaves of the Socotrine aloe. The American aloe (see Agave) is a different plant altogether; as are also the aloes or lign-aloes of Scripture, which are supposed to be the Aquilaria Agallŏchum, or aloes-wood (q. v.). Aloe fibre is obtained from species of Aloë, Agave, Yucca, &c., and is made into coarse fabrics, ropes, &c.
Aloes-wood, Eagle-wood, or Agilawood, the inner portion of the trunk of Aquilāria ovāta and A. Agallŏchum, forest trees belonging to the ord. Aquilariaceæ, found in tropical Asia, and yielding a fragrant resinous substance, which, as well as the wood, is burned for its perfume. Another tree, the Aloexўlon Agallŏchum (ord. Leguminosæ), also produces aloes-wood. This wood is supposed to be the lign-aloes (a corruption of the Lat. lignum aloe) of the Bible.
Alope′cia, a variety of baldness in which the hair falls off from the beard and eyebrows, as well as the scalp.