570 GRAMINE^. 



History, Uses, &C. — This grass is not, to our know- 

 ledge, mentioned by Sanskrit writers, but is well known to the 

 peasantry by the names given above, which signify '^ physi- 

 cian's grass " and ^' pungent grass.'' A. odorafus was first 

 observed by one of us in 1875 as a grass growing sparingly at 

 Tanna, near Bombay, and used by the natives as a carminative 



bowel complaints of children {Mat. MecL of Western 

 Lklia^ 1st Ed., p. 693), In 1889 this grass was found growing 



in the 



estem Ghauts by Mrs 



Natural M. 



'>! 



led 



grass and oLtaiued from it an essential oil having at first an • 

 odour recalling that of cassia and rosemary, but afterwards a 

 strong persistent odour of oil of cassia. Messrs. Schimmel & Co. 

 notice the odour of Pine needle oil in this sample, and find 

 the sp. gr. to be -945. 



Description. — Root as in A, SchcBuanthus. Culm erect, 

 3—5 ft. high, sometimes branching from the lower part, 

 glabrous ; nodes long-bearded. Leaves lanceolate, cordate at 

 the base, acute or acuminate, with a few long hairs ; the lower 

 cauHne and radicle leaves long, the upper small, but their 

 sheaths very long. Ligula small. Spikes numerous, erect, 

 branched, pedicellate {the pedicel of the lower spikes longer), 

 and congested at the end of a long peduncle without a 

 sheathing bract and forming an erect, dense, ovoid panicle. 

 The rachis, pedicel, and the spikes covered with long silky 

 hairs. Spikelets nearly two lines long, of a purple colour, the 

 sessile and the pedicellate nearly similar ; outer glume of the 

 sessile spikelet rather thin, many-nerved, somewhat obtuse 

 and covered with long silky hairs, with a pit in some spikelets 

 of the same plant and absent in others ; second glume as long 



as ,,^ ,„^^ 



third elume thinnpr anrl "hx, 



\ 



^ iKne ; fourth glume, smaller or an 

 1 inch long, with a hermaphrodite flower at the end 

 of the pedicel. Pedicel of the pedicellate spikelet covered 

 with white hairs, but the spikelet almost free of hairs. Outer 



glume stiff, with five or more nerves, not nrnminent. almost 



