Origin of the Lemon-grass.— As the lemon-grass is only 
known in the cultivated state, the question arises, what is its 
origin ? I am afraid it is yet too soon to give a satisfactory 
answer. It is true there is not, among the Malayan species of 
Cymbopogon, so far as I know them from the collections at Kew 
and the British Museum, a single one which suggests itself to my 
mind as the spontaneous state of the lemon-grass, and Rumphius' 
statement that it occurs in the wild state in Amboina is, as I have 
alr-eady remarked open to doubt j but our knowledge of the 
*J0f the Malayan region is still so imperfect that the 
possibility ot the lemon-grass having originated there is by no 
means excluded. J 
The Cymbopogon most closely approaching C. citratus that I 
v seen L ^ Andropoqonpendulus, 
Nees e X Bteii miich in F jj j ^ £ £ Kurz ' 
and Clarke in the Sikkim Terai, and by Griffith (No. 6763) in 
tion foil vernacular name is given, there is no informa- 
tion concerning its properties and uses, nor has it ever been 
T*Z t Wi !V he ] r° n - graSS ' «* to d'o this in he li.ht of our 
Tar TxswZhJv h ' a T nd ^ fV ''"l to Andropogon Nardus, 
^i^Sden 7 ^?^- I* " U r in '" l! — in the Calcutta 
afairly distinc ^^/ J ^I 6 been raised from tlie seeds of 
frX:tZ all^St^^V^ 1 ^" 168 wMch 6XtendS 
aromatic, citron-Seel W PQ w r ° HlHa ' aU<l P ° SSeSSeS T Y 
uiiscentea leaves. However this may be, neither 
sufficrently^h the leL^™^ Wild representative agrees 
latter fronl ItL'o! lZ°%fZ!° "^ *" ^^ ° f "" 
^^m^Z^ 1 w t0 add on * a few words on 
of distillate was ^m^ "* 1 ? 88 - We have seRn that some kind 
beginning of * thp 1 I ?T + ° mit iu the Philippines as early as the 
about 1717 when I ^ F 7 ' In Euro P e itfirst became known 
most rema^abll Us of fheT^r^ ' ° leUm Siree ' a8 ° ne ° f th6 
reliqna ex '"dies : « supereminet hoc inter 
that it was re ISv 1 ?^ 1 " aIlata = but there is nothing to show 
^oe until tiel^lC^it in ?° Euro P e as an ^iole of corn- 
gives the export^^en^ V* emneteenthcentury - Watt t in1883 
is cultivated^ th e icHf 1 T ^H™ Where the lemon ^ raSS 
much smaller extent Li Kk™^ gra8S ' altll0Ugh t0 a ™ V 
' dS . 1 »°W lbs. Gildemeisf— ~- 
emon-oil in 
small quantities 
._ prodt " 
and the West Ind 
t Diet. Eco . 
t GUdemei^ r. (1883) p - 
md Hoff ^n Q , Vol. Oils (1903), p P 2i 
