BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 93 
P. Heyneano.”  Walpers, indeed, apparently on the authority of M. 
Pelletier Sautelet, says : ** Crescit locis humidis in Insulis Mascarenis ;” 
but if the Mauritius is intended here to be included, we may observe 
that only one species of Pogostemon is described by Bojer as inhabiting 
that island, P. paniculatum of Bentham, and it is merely a garden plant. 
The method of preparing the extract, or by what people it is prepared, 
is unknown. Our friend Dr. Wallich, however, has not been inatten- 
tive to the subject, as will be seen from the following passage, which 
he published in the Medical Physical Society of Calcutta, for 1835. 
* I shall now advert to another vegetable substance, which, although 
most extensively used by the natives of this country, has hitherto con- 
tinued one ofthe problems in our Indian Materia Medica. The drug 
to which I allude, is called in Bengalee, as well as in Hindee, Puché 
Pát, and is found in every bazaar almost throughout Hindustan. My 
esteemed friend, Baboo Radhakant Deb, now Rajah Radhakant Deb 
Bahadur, informs me that ‘ there exists no Sanscrita name for this leaf, 
which is largely imported by Mogul merchants ; that it is used as an 
ingredient in tobacco for smoking, and for scenting the hair of women, 
and that the essential oil is in common use among the superior classes 
of the natives, for imparting the peculiar fragrance of the leaf to 
clothes. I believe that the people of the peninsula are peculiarly 
fond of this perfume, and so are the Roman Catholie inhabitants of 
this country generally. 
* Having ascertained on my return from Europe, two years ago, that 
a large quantity of what appeared to be the same drug as that com- 
monly sold in the bazaars under the name of Pucha-Pat, had been 
imported from Penang, I requested Mr. Page Porter, late of that 
island, and formerly in charge of the botanical establishment there, to 
favour me with an account of the article, and also if possible with some 
growing plants of it. In February last year (1834) I had the pleasure 
to receive from him several plants, which I have succeeded in multiply- 
ing by cuttings, and which appear to thrive remarkably well in this 
garden. Mr. Porter has furnished me with the following memorandum : 
— The Pucha Pat grows perfectly wild at Penang, and on the oppo- 
site shore of the Malay peninsula, in Wellesley province. The Arabs 
use and export it more than any other nation. Their annual pilgrim- 
ship takes up an immense quantity of the leaf. They employ it principally 
for stuffing mattrasses and pillows, and assert that it is very efficacious 
