298 
The botany of the oil-grasses is only slightly touched upon in the 
work. The definitions and the nomenclature of the species are, 
on the whole, those of Hackel's monograph of Andropof/one i- and 
of Hooker's elaboration of the grasses of India. The origin of the 
several oils from the species mentioned is stated somewhat 
apo lid ically, and there is nothing to suggest the difficulties which 
from time to time have arisen owing to the unsatisfactory state of 
our knowledge of the "botany" of those grass-oils. This condition 
has become more accentuated with the increased interest in the 
grass-oil industry during the last few years and with the attempts 
at reorganising and extending it in its old homes and at intro- 
ducing it into other tropical countries. The ' Semi-Annual 
Reports' published by Schimmel & Co. contain not a few 
direct and indirect references to the uncertainty of the taxonomy 
of the grasses involved : I quote only two passages. 
In the April-May Report for 1903, p. 23, the authors say :— " It 
has repeatedly attracted our attention, that when it is a question 
of their origin, the Andropo.. m :_:\i — - nv frequently confounded 
with each other . . . there are some exactly defined species 
indicated as the mother plants of oils which, according to our 
information, could not possibly be produced from them"; and 
a-rain in the October-November Report for 1 '.'()."), p. 52 : "On a 
previous occasion we have already pointed out that the Andro- 
pogon grasses, where their origin is mentioned, are frequently 
m:st ik. n one for the other. This inconvenience is all the more 
felt as the uncertainty of the botanical nnmonelaiure also exists 
in scientific work." 
At Kew the experience has been the same. The incongruous 
application of the names l An(Iroj,nr/n,i Srh'-mmxlhux 1 and 
■■.-ass' and the obscurity of De Candolle's A<>dn> v <vjni> 
ritratiis have been anion,' the principal sources of trouble. To 
them has had to be added, more recently, uncertainty as to the 
origin ,.f the Ginger-grass oil. Even the comparatively well- 
l^nowu i uronella grass has been suspected to be a "con dte " 
species, or at any rate to include two varieties, the distinctive 
morphological characters of which were still to seek. 
Under the circumstances a thorough overhauling, from the 
taxonomic standpoint, of the grasses involved was essential in the 
interests of the grass-oil industrv. Having been entrusted with 
tms task, I revised in the first place the material in the Kew 
. Hich as it was in some respects, it was sadly lacking 
TnriS /«' • . collecti °n of oil-grasses made in Southern 
m of Mr. C. A. Barber, Government Botanisl 
• H, Iras, wenta long way to fill the gaps, so far as the Madras 
fhe RHW' y R nd K TraVanC ° re were concerned, whii,t Or. la.isy, of 
^DDHSS^f^r-^ 1 *^ 11 '^ Dr.Trenb, of Buitenzorg, 
£ m ." ™ scientific 
ntoricYd^ Witll0Ut due consid,ra«ion of a, 
of the I LfnZ el0 P" ent * I. have endeavoured to get a good grasp 
HW wti7, ° f i lhe S ? bjeCt This h:ls en *aUed a great deal of 
Profe?S M h i d f ****»**. Professor Urban of lWlin, 
« tM- TO i- °V rur L n ' and Dr - Bri( i uet of Geneva ' have 
assisted in this direction by the loan of specimens : but the 
