repeatedly been pointed out by Schimmel & Co. in their Semi- 
annual Reports, that the West Indian, West African an I lira/.ilian 
products are inferior to good 'East Indian' lemon-grass oil on 
account of their inferior solubility in alcohol, and their low citral- 
content. A recent note in the Tropical Agriculturist (August, 
1906, p. 141) leads to the same conclusion with regard to the 
Ceylon lemon-grass oil, samples of which have been tested at the 
Government Experimental Station at Peradeniya. The explanation 
of those discrepancies lies evidently in the fact, that the good 
' Kast Indian' lemon-grass oil is the oil of G. flexuosus, whilst 
the ' inferior ' kind is the product of 0. citratus. * 
8. Cymbopogon Martini, Stapf. 
(Andropogon Martini, Roxb.) 
Geranium Grass— Rusa (Hind.). 
Foundation op the Species.— During the war of 179<>-l7'.»-2 
against Tipu Sultan, Clan i ■ M m n, \ io joined the expedition in 
1791 as a Commissioner of Provisions and Aide-de-camp to Lord 
Cornwallis, collected " in the highlands of Ballaghat " the seeds of a 
grass which had struck him owing to its excellence as a fodd< r- 1 .1 a 1 1 i . 
as well as on account of its pungent taste and aromatic odour, which 
was so strong as to impart itself to the milk of the cows which fed 
on it. From the seeds he raised an abundant crop at Lucknow. 
He also supplied Roxburgh "with a small stalk, roots and seed. 
The "small stalk" is not preserved; but Roxburgh grew the 
grass from the seed in the Calcutta Botanic Garden, and of the 
specimens thus raised there are two at the British Museum, one 
from Roxburgh's herbarium, the other from General Harflwicke - 
collection. The first is named * Andropogon Marti m m 
Roxburgh's own hand, the other, under the same name, bears 
the date 18th February, 1789. The name did not appear in print 
until 1814, f whilst the description i: I y written 
before 179'.». wjs.mlv puUMi.'d in lvju. Tin ■■t^cnpnon is rather 
vague ; but so far as it goes, it agrees fairly wdl with Roxburgh s 
type in the British Museum, and there would have been no 
difficulty in exactly identifying Martin's plant but tor the tact 
that there exists in Roxburgh's collection at Kew a coloured 
1,095) which 
itten up as Av<lr<n,r,u<>i. 
sents another grass. Nees,J w~ - 
identified H by Wight (No. 1,7000 
under the name " Andropogon (Cymb.) caesvm, NJL, 
■fo, firmo," but the name Nees gives it is •■ Andrei'''* 
(<-!lmb.) M,<rt;,n. R<,xb., y. etathr, rulnm ri rm^ credo, lam 
Mined to agree with Nees so far as the identity of the ngurewi n 
^igWs Xo. 1,700c is concerned; but both names are 
misapplied, the plant in question being actually G • 
member of the < Nardus ' group (see p. 321). There s abo 
another and very similar coloured dra wing i n Ro ^les collection 
* Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ed Carey k Wall., vol. i. (1820), p. 280. 
t Roxburgh, Hort. Beng. (1814), p. 7. Cur. vol. xix., suppl. ii. 
I Neea in Meyen, Obs. Bot. (Nov. Act. Leop. Carol. Nat. tor. vo 
!843), p. 190. 
