NOMENCLATURE OF CYMBOPOGON NARDUS. 189 



Panicle, very variable, effuse, correlated with white stems, 

 broad leaves, light coloured strongly veined Glume I. of sessile 

 spikelet ; contracted, correlated with red stems, narrower 

 leaves, and obscurely veined reddish brown Glume I. 



Spikelets, variation occurs only, according to my observa- 

 tions, in Glumes I. and IV. of sessile spikelet. 



In Glume I. variation is noticeable, more especially in 

 venation, wings, colour of the Glume. 



In Glume IV. in presence or absence of an awn. 



Venation, veins in flexures well defined, with intermediate 

 ones 3 to 5, these in yellow-green glumes. 



Wings very broad, moderately so or 0. 



Colour varies from yellowish green through varying degrees 

 of reddish brown. 



Glume IV., awn long, short, or 0, and I have found all 

 three variations in spikelets of the same panicle. 



Cymbopogon Nardus, Rendle, Syn., Andropogon Nardus, L., 

 Subsp. Genuinus, Hackel. Yielding citronella oil — known in 

 Ceylon as Maha-pangiri , S., " Maha " signifying '' large " and 

 " pangiri " the vapour of the essential oil that is forced from 

 orange or lemon peel when squeezed. 



The folloAving description of Maha-pangiri is written from 

 specimens grown on Craig, Bandarawela, at 4,500 ft., com- 

 pared with inflorescences kindly sent me by A, W. Winter, Esq., 

 of Pillagodda Valley, Baddegama; this is the true "Old 

 Citronella Grass " or " Winter's Grass." 



A tufted perennial, tufts composed of plants connected by 

 their roots. 



Roots fibrous from the thickened bases of the stems. The 

 root system is superficial, and old bushes push themselves out 

 of the ground, so that there are often four or five inches of 

 leafless caudex above the ground surface. 



Stems. — Seven feet or more, leafy, stout, erect, smooth, 

 pohshed, or more or less tinged with red, nodes tumid, glabrous, 

 lower internodes terete, upper grooved for the pedicels of the 

 panicles. 



Leaves erect for about a third, then drooping for about 

 two-thirds of their length, hnear, very long at low elevations, 

 30 to 40 in., tapering to a fine membraneous point and from 



