Graminew.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 425 
Another species, named A. Nardus, by Rottler, but with a doubt of its correctness, is 
called ginger or spice-grass, by Ainslie, 11, p- 401; it is common on the Courtallum. 
hills and in the district of Tinnivelly, where the natives use its infusion as a stomachic, 
and occasionally prepare from it an essential oil useful in rheumatism. A. Iwaruncusa, 
a native of the country skirting the base of the Himalayas, corhes remarkably near 
A. Schenanthus, as observed by Dr. Roxburgh, both in habit and taste. Mr. Blane 
found it between the Hills and the Rapty ; Dr. Boyd near Hurdwar, in which neighbour- 
hood, in the Kheree Pass, and at Mohun, I have also found it. The natives there call 
it mirchia gand, and the Hukeems give it, as the izkhir of the Arabs, and the iskhinos 
of the Greeks. It may be the true cywo¢ of Dioscorides, though the Lemon-grass, 
A. Schenanthus, which is only found in gardens in N. India, being common in the 
islands and S. of India, became first known to Europeans; and as it possessed the 
requisite properties, was thought to be, and may possibly have been, the true cyivos. 
A species possessing still more remarkable aromatic properties, and far more exten- 
sively diffused, is that which yields the fragrant grass-oil of Namur, and which 1 
named Andropogon Calamus Aromaticus, from Supposing it to be the xaAapog apoparixos 
of Dioscorides. This species is found in Central India, extends north as far as 
Delhi, and south to between the Godavery and Nagpore, where, according to Dr. 
Malcolmson, it is called Spear-grass; it may be the A. Martini of Roxburgh, as I 
believe, it is also thought to be by Dr. Wight, though it has been named A. Nardoides 
by Nees von Esenbeck. : 
The xarapos apoparixog is described by Dioscorides immediately after czsvog, which 
is usually translated Odoratus Juncus, and generally acknowledged to be Andropogon 
Schenanthus, and is stated by him to be a produce of Africa and Arabia. The Lemon- 
grass may be found in Arabia, and, perhaps, in Africa, as well as in India. Calamus 
Aromaticus, immediately following cyvos, and stated also to be a native of India, appears 
to me to have been a plant allied to Lemon-grass. It is thought also to be the 
? 
‘sweet cane,” and the “rich aromatic reed from a far country” of Scripture. There 
is no plant which more closely coincides in description with every thing that is required, 
than the tall grass, which yields the fragrant grass-oil of Central India. This has been 
considered by Mr. Hatchett, ‘‘ On the Spikenard of the Ancients,” to be both the vagdog, 
and the Sweet Calamus, of the Ancients. The former I conceive to be Nardostachys 
Jatamansi, (v. p. 242), and the latter to be the present species of Andropogon, which 
I named Calamus aromaticus,(v.1.c.); also my ‘‘ Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo 
Medicine,” (p. 33 and 83). Mr. Hatchett has, however, republished the figure of Andro- 
pogon Iwaruncusa, from the Philos. Trans. vol. 80; though his specimens, which he 
obtained from Mr. Swinton, and which I have had an opportunity of examining, are 
identical with mine of A. Calamus Aromaticus, from the same part of India. 
Sugar is a principle abundantly secreted in grasses, as has been satisfactorily 
proved in the analysis of the Pasture-grasses, by Sir H. Davy; in Sorghum 
(Holcus) saccharatum, it is secreted in such quantity, that in Italy this plant has 
31 been 
