)^ 



Note on Dr. Otto Stapf's Nomenclature of 



Cymbopogon Nardus, Rendle, and C. 



confertiflorus, Stapf. 



BY 



J. F. JOWITT, B.A. OxoN. 



STUDENTS of oil grasses are, I take it, much indebted to 

 Dr. Otto Stapf for the information afforded in " The Oil 

 Grasses of India and Ceylon," Kew Bulletin, No. 8 of 1906. 

 In the face of the dicta of such an authority as Dr. Otto Stapf, 

 I approach this subject with the greatest diffidence, but 

 venture the following remarks, as I have been studying oil 

 grasses for the last four years, growing them and distilling oil 

 therefrom. 



My difficulty is as regards Cymbopogon nardus, Rendle, and 

 C. confertiflorus , Stapf. 



Dr. Stapf under Cymbopogon nardus, Rendle, refers the 

 reader for descriptions to Hackel, Androp., pages 601 and 

 602 (subsp. genuinus), and to Hook. f. in Trimen, Fl. Ceyl., 

 vol. v., p. 242. The former I have 'jiot seen, but with the 

 latter I am well acquainted. 



Sir J. D. Hooker refers to C. P. 2,733, and states that it is 

 the mana grass of the patanas, and on this specimen presum- 

 ably his description was mainly based. 



Dr. Willis kindly allowed me to examine C. P. 2,733. In a 

 pocket attached to this specimen, also numbered 2,733, is a 

 beautifully dissected spikelet which I should, from the descrip- 

 tion in Fl. B. Ind., pronounce to be ^. nardus, var. nilagiricus, 

 Hack ; this is an awned spikelet. The spikelet I dissected was 

 awnless, which bears out my contention that in this species the 

 presence or absence of an awn alone is of but little taxonomic 

 value. 



[Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. IV., Part IV., Dec., 1908.] 



7(6)08 (24) 



