GUAMINEM. 5C5 



returning from Java may have introduced it. The Hindus 

 colonized that island in the 5th century, and in the 7th century 

 there was much intercourse between the mother ^country and 

 the colony. In Java the grass is called Sireh ; it was known 

 to Rumphius and other early writers on the natural history of 

 the East, and in 1717 au oil distilled from it in Amhoyna was 

 known as a curiosity. {Ephem. Nat. Curios., cent- v — vi., 

 Appendix 157, quoted in Pharmacographia.) Lemon-grass oil 

 is mentioned by Roxburgh in 1820 as being distilled in the 

 Moluccas^ and it w^as first imported into London about the year 

 1832. An infusion of the fresh herb is a favorite native 

 remedy in India as a diaphoretic and stimulant in catarrh and 

 febrile conditions, and also in the congestive and neuralgic 

 forms of dysmenorrhoea. The oil is used as a carminative and 

 as an application in chronic rheumatism. The oil has been 

 made official in the Pharmacopceia of India. Dr. Waring, in 

 the appendix to this work, records a high testimony in its 

 favour both as an external application in rheumatism and in 

 other painful affections, and as a stimulant and diaphoretic 

 internally. He states that amongst the half-castes of South 

 India it is one of their most highly esteemed remedies in 

 cholera. In infusion the leaves are often combined with tea, 

 mint, or black pej^per. 



rude 



Western base of the hills in Travancore, from Anjengo 

 northwards. The grass is burnt at the end of the dry 

 weather. In Europe the oil is now a well-known article of 

 commerce under the names of Lemon-grass oil. Oil of Verbena, 

 and Indian Melissa oil. It is employed us an ingredient in 

 perfumes, such as Eau de Cologne, and for scenting soaps, 

 and also for adulterating the "true Verbena oil" obtained 

 from Lippia dtriodom in Spain. 



Description.— Root perennial, young propagating- 

 shoots issue from the axils of the leaves that surround a short, 

 subligneous leaf-bearing culm. Culms from 5 to 7 feet high, 

 ^^^ect, simple, smooth, about as thick as a goose-quill. Leaves 

 many, near the root bifarious, few on the upper part of the 

 culm, of a snff fovfiiv.. TiMlp-crrppTi colour, slio'htlv scabrous on 



