560 QRAUINEJE. 



iised 



as it cannot be detected by the evaporation test. 



The 



it is principally exported, lia Egypt and the Red Sea ports, from 

 Bombay, was first explained by Hanbury {N. Reperf. f. Pharm., 

 viii., 365), and in Pharmacographia we find the following 

 interesting statement : — *'No drug is more subject than attar of 

 rose to adulteration, which is principally effected by the addition 

 bf the volatile oil of an Indian grass, Andropogon Schcenanthus, L. 

 This oil, which is called in Turkish Idris paghi, * and also 

 Entershah, and is more or less known to Europeans as Gera- 



ported into 



and 



even submitted to a sort of purification before being used . f It 

 was formerly added to the attar only in Constantinople, but 



mixing 



It 



18 said that in many places the roses are absolutely sprinkled 

 with it before being placed in the still." 



Description. — Root perennial, with long wiry fibres ; culms 

 erect, from 3 to 6 feet high, often ramous, smooth, filled with a 

 spongy pith ; leaves very long, tapering to a very fine point, 

 smooth in every part, and of a soft delicate texture ; sheaths, 

 shorter than the joints on full-grown plants, with a membrana- 

 ceous stipulary process at the mouth ; panicles linear, subsecund ; 

 apikelets paired, but with only three joints ; flowers also paired, 

 one-awned, hermaphrodite and sessile, the other, awnless, 

 male and pedicelled, the terminal florets are three, one 

 hermaphrodite, sessile and awned, the other two male, pedicelled, 

 and awnless. 



Hermaphrodite calyx one-flowered, two-valved, base girt with 



wool, as is nlon flici i.n^Viic. J J.' T ^ ^«1-tTO<1 



', izris, pronounced idris by the Arabs, is a Persian word, and i» 

 eiplained in the BurAdn », a kind of wild mallow which the Greeks call Aluho 

 «rid the Arabs g'^^ (shahm-el-maraj). If » decoction of it with 

 nnegar and oil is rubbed on the limbs it protects against venomous bites. I* 



t« perhaps Pmonia odorata or some other odoriferous plant belonging to the 

 M»lv«ce« . 



t For particular., ,ee Baur (p. 262. note 3). 



