347 
Babu Rajendrala'la Mitra* interprets as meaning "aromRtir 
ako « £« U Sf a T ZT^ [C Suba '^ ™<* hence 
aiso Khas Khas.' The latter term, now so commonly used is 
Wnrf J .T I 1 ?-" meDti0ned » ! '' ' l-A.lwh Iht «s , 
•b^^^JS). 1 * 1 ^^ ^ Call6d ^ th6 Per8lan8 
n„ Th -V Khas Khas ' was lon £ a -° equally well known to the 
peoples of the South. RheedeJ. described and feared the 
grass under the Malayalim name B , *$ in use in 
Iravancore (Mamach-cham, Moodeen Sherif ; Rama&am. Stolz) 
He states that the roots (but not the leaves) are fragrant and sold 
m tne bazars for medicinal purposes to prepare lotions, infusions, 
and decoctions. It is, he remarks, very common throughonl 
and diligently cultivated by the natives, who propagate it 
by dividing t Ik- tufts and planting them in loose soil. II.. funhn- 
"'- i-vos that the best Hamacciam grows near Tutncorim, the 
a our own day is still the principal place of export of 
tne roots of ' Khas Khas ' or ' Vetiver.' Rheede's figure reptvsnits a 
ieat-tuft with the leaf-tops cut off. Although somewhat crude, it is 
Perfectly characteristic, ami it is difhVnlr to understand how the 
Kamacciam ' of the 'Horms Malabaricus ' could ever have passed— 
Scio S0 fre< I ueIltl y tas done— for the 'lemon-grass.' Hermann^ 
U072-1677) also found the roots in similar use at Colombo in 
Oeylon, where they were known as ■ Lumbutschi-veru (radix 
odorata)' and the grass itself as ' SaewaendaraJ which name 
has survived to the present day. About 25 years later (in 1700) 
-L>r. Bulkley sent it to Ch. Du Bois from Madras under the Tamil 
name' Vetty veer ' (= Vetiver), the vernacular name by which the 
grass is best known in Europe. Petiver|| also received specimens of 
it from Samuel Browne of Madras at about the same time and 
announced them in his 'Museum ' as " Gramen Madraspntanum 
majus cujus h,ntstne sj>fn><?is ehujanter (ifmntar sunt" Some of 
them he sent to Scheuchzerlf, who from them drew up one of 
';'" - •• . ' -I.;--:'- descriptions which for completeness aad accuracy 
remained Ion srological literature. 
FOUNDATION OF THE SPECIES. SYNONYMY.— No notice was 
taken of Scheuchzer's description or of Petiver's and Du Bois's 
specimens, and when Linnaeus, about 1770,** received the grass 
lioni IvomiLr he described it as something new under the name 
P/ialaris zi-dnioldrs. Koenig, however, also sent specimens of 
the grass to Retzius, who published i: as A/ct/yi/^f/oN mttriratus^ 
in 1783. This name, which was suggested by Koenig himself, was 
* Babu Rajendrala'la Mitra in Jonrn. As. Soc. Ben?. (Hist. & Lit.), vol. zlii. 
( 1 3' p - S20 i Proc - As - Soc - Ben S- ( l873 »• P- l6L 
k. Warden, and Hooper, Pharmacogr. Indica (1893), rol. iii., 
, Agrostogr. (1719), 
Mant. Alt. (1771), p 
rv„ vol. in. (1733), \ 
