226 



vii. 206) ■d.-s, forma cult a. It is now (April, 1 904) identified by Forbes 



and Hemsley (Journ. Linn. Soc." [Bot.] (xxxvi. 376) as synonymous 



with the Cymbopogon Nardiis of Rendle (in "Cat. Afr. Ph" ii. 155), 



cultivated in some parts of tropical Asia, as at Hong-Kong (Hance), 



and of which there is a specimen in the British Museum Herbarium. 



Consequently we may infer that this is the plant intended to be 



figured in Bentley and Trimen's excellent work, " Medicinal Plants," 



tab. 297, although the plates in that work (by D. Blair) are not, in 



the opinion of some botanists, specimens of the best botanical 



drawing and colouration ; and notwithstanding the fact that the 



Editors of the " Tropical Agriculturist" afterwards, in the issue 



dated October, 1898 — probably relying on the authority of "G. 



Watt's Dictionary of Economic Products" (published 1889-96), iii. 



247 — permitted the two sorts of Ceylon citronella grass to be 



designated " Lana Batu" and "Maha Pangiri," but admitted that 



only two sorts exist on the island. The words are applied in 



manner to convey the impression that the " Lana Batu" is the more 



widely distributed of the two kinds and furnishes the bulk of the 



commercial oil ; that the plant was first found in Matara, in the 



south of the island ; that the " Maha Pangiri," which is only 



cultivated in the neighbourhood of Baddagama, was introduced from 



Malacca, and thrives on good soil only ; that it is apparently 



cultivated in the Straits Settlements and in Java ; and that it yields 



an oil of considerably finer quality than the first-named sort. On 



this point it seems preferable to accept the authority of the late 



Dr. Trimen, who was an eminent and practical botanist, and who, 



as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Paradeniya, doubtless 



understood the Cingalese dialects and vernacular better than did 



either the entire staff of the " Tropical Agriculturist" or even Sir 



George Watt, of the India Museum and Calcutta (Reporter on 



Economic Products to the Government of India) himself. (On 



matters of quality of the oils refer to Schimmel & Co.'s " Reports," 



October, 1898, 18; October, 1899, 17; April, 1900, 12; and THE 



Chemist and Druggist, 1898, 646.) The description given by 



Bentley and Trimen in their work, "Medicinal Plants," is as follows : 



A large perennial herb with i long, slightly branched, partly aerial rhizome 

 reaching ^ inch in diameter and strongly ringed with the closely packed scars of 

 the leaf-sheaths, the remains of which persist on the upper portion and giving off 

 numerous tough root-fibres. Stem reaching 6 feet or more high, erect, stout, 

 eyliudrical, solid, smooth and shining, partially concealed by the leaf-sheaths 

 scarcely thickened at the nodes, which are approximated below, but widely separ- 

 ated above, flat or channelled on one side on the u per portion. Leaves very 

 large and long, numerous, erect, lower <>n-s sometimes reduced to their sheaths ; 

 sheaths thick and strong about 6 inches Ion-/, close bu: not entirely enveloping 

 the stem, quite smooth, striate ligule short, brown, laciniate scarious, blade about 

 2 feet long, linear, very much attenuated at the ap x, tapering below, minutely 

 denticulate with torward points on the edg'-s, smooth on both surfaces, pale, some- 

 what glaucous green, lighter beneath. vSpikelets very small, arranged in couples, 

 one stalked, containing one male fl"wer, the other sessile, with one hermaphrodite 

 and often one barren flower ; the couples, to the number <•! ihree or four, articulated 

 on alternate sides of a short, flattened, jdnted rachis, clothed aloi.g the ed^es with 

 long white silky hairs tufted beneath the spikelets, forming a short, acute spike 

 about i to I inch long ; the spikes arranged in pairs on a c mimon slender stalk, 



