f the leaf-stalk of the Lotus, e 
ige quoted cannot be adc 
^ 3f the distillation of oil 
' Vetiver.' Indeed, the distillation of Ye 
uii m inuia seems to be of very limitedf extenl and then is 
hardly any export, the oil being mainly produced in Kur.m,-,,. 
distilleries from the imported root; but even the import of the 
roots as a regular article of commerce appears to be of com 
paratively recent date. 
Natural Area and Cultivation.— The natural area of a wlm- 
I ndia and Ceylon includes practically the whole 
country, in the north up to altitudes of 600 m. Although common 
i-arts of the country, particularly on the banks of rivers 
and in rich, marshy soil, it is also at present, as in Rhode's tim.-, 
i, as (nr i.^tunee in Rajputana and in Clmiia 
Eastwards the area extends into Burma. Throughout 
Malayan region, however, it occurs only in the cultivated state 
or as an escape from gardens. It has also been introduced into 
the Mascarenes, the West Indies, and Brazil ; but it seems that in 
these countries oil is not distilled to any appreciable extent, except, 
perhaps in Reunion, where the grass must have been in cultivation 
for at least 100 years, as the first sample of Vetiver-oil that was 
chemically examined} (in 1809) came from there. 
12. Andropogon (Sect. Amphilophis) odoratus, Lisb. 
Usadhana. 
This is a little-known grass which was discovered by Dymock 
at Thana in 1875 and mentioned on account of its strong odour of 
ginger under its vernacular name, Usadhana, in the first edition 
of his "Materia Medica of Western India" (p. 693). In the 
second edition of that work (p. 853) it was referred to Andropogon 
Nardus. Subsequently it was, however, recognised as a new 
species by Mrs. J. C. Lisboa,§ and described as A. odoratus. This 
very aromatic grass is used by the peasantry of the Thana district 
for medicinal purposes. An essential oil of a golden- yellow to a 
deep sherry colour, with a distinctive odour, was obtained from it 
by diet illation, but it has not yet become an article of commerce. 
The odour is, according to the "Pharmacographialndica," vol. iii., 
p. 570, at first that of cassia and rosemary, but afterwards that of 
oil of cassia or, according to Gildemeister and Hoffmann,! that of 
pine-needle oil. 
GlNGBR-GRASS. 
(Gildemeister and Hoffmann, Volatile Oils, p. 285.) 
> Gildemeister and Hoffmann mention in their work on volatile 
oils a "ginger-grass < 
quality of palmarosa 
* Dutt, Mat. Med. Hind., ed. 2. T1900), p. 109. 
t Duthie (Fodd. Grass. N. India, p. 37) mentions that at 
xiv. (1809), t 
r. (1889), p. I 
, Vol. Oils, p. 299. 
