ODOKIFERODS GRASSES OF INDIA AND CEYLON. 121 



freely though not very widely in many open hill-sides in West 

 Khandeish, especially in Akrani." 



An intelligent Parsi, who some years ago farmed a field in 

 Khandeish for distilling oil from this Andropogon, tells me that 

 there is no such thing as blue or white varieties ; that the grass 

 which bears bluish-green and white inflorescence when young 

 becomes red when ripe. This accords with my observation regarding 

 the changes of colour which this Andropogon undergoes as it grows 

 in the Deccan and Konkan. When young, the hairs of its spikelets 

 give it a peculiar greenish-blue or whitish appearance, but when 

 it grows older the whole of the inflorescence with the bracts, or 

 floral leaves, especially when these are exposed to or dried in 

 the sun, becomes reddish, as anybody can verify this fact on 

 their way to Poona at the end of the rainy season, and from the 

 several specimens laid on the table collected in the Deccan, Thana, 

 and Khandeish. Those of the last place and the two bottles of oil 

 were kindly sent to me by a Government officer. On examination 

 you will find all the Khandeish specimens to be of a reddish-brown 

 colour, and the kind of oil named Motia, is of a rather clear golden 

 colour, resembling olive oil, and the Sophia, turbid or reddish, not 

 white, as stated in the Bombay Gazetteer, There are also on the 

 table specimens received faom Nasik, the inflorscence of which ia 

 of a beautiful admixture of bluish-white and reddish colour. 



Now the question is whether the two varieties, blue and white, 

 mentioned in the Gazetteer, are coloured red by age. It is probable 

 that the same plant may bear inflorescence bluish-white and red at 

 different stages of its growth, and the colour and density of its oil 

 may vary according to the process of distillation employed, or 

 according to the age at which the plant is cut. 



It may also happen that instead of varieties there may be distinct 

 species. Roxburgh, in his Flora Indica, describes an aromatic species 

 under the name of A. Iwarancusa. Some botanists, however, think 

 that this description applies partly to A. laniger and partly to 

 A. Schatnanthus. Others believe that there is in Northern India a 

 grass with white hairs, which, though closely allied to A. Schcenan- 

 thus, is a distinct species. 



Fliickiger and Hanbury, in describing in their Pharmacographia, 

 p. 662, the uses of grass oil, say.-—" Grass oils are much esteemed in 

 India as external applications in rheumatism and other such affec- 

 tions ; Rusa oil is said to stimulate the growth of hair. Internally 



