330 
bo.'ii observe] anywhere in a wild state. Statements to that effect 
have occasionally been made ; but they have arisen from the 
confusion of the cultivated Sereh with other similar and truly wild 
Sp iciee of Cymbqpogon. Dr. De Vry in a letter to D. Hanbury says 
distinctly that it is not found in a spontaneous state in Java, 
and Dr. Koorders gives me the same assurance, so far as Java and 
Celebes are concerned ; and the fact that Rumphius never found 
the grass in flower on Siree Hill nor on the hill near Naco, where 
In* thought it to be wild, makes me rather believe, that here too 
we have merely a case of escape and secondary establishment. 
East of the Malay Archipelago the Sereh has been found in 
dens or as an escape in their neighbourhood in Kaiser 
Wilhelms and, in the Bismarck Archipelago,* and in Samoa and 
ftjLt According to Balansa,* ' Andropogon Schoenanthus, 
Koxb. (that is lemon-grass), also occurs in New Caledonia rather 
""",' ' ! " ! L 0Q ^cultivated and arid hill-sides, flowering very 
n«*Iy. I he colonists, he says, prepare from the highly aromatic 
leaves a much appreciated drink. I have not seen Balanea'fl speci- 
men ; Hackel, who has, considers it as very closely approaching 
ft 'A*** ** a synonym of imon-grass)! 
&W?S;:;' N,,S,,M ' 'V T lMe foracc ^e determination. If 
caseTt i R ftn " ^^ ^mon-grass, as is very probably the 
no doubt an alien in New Caledonia where it has locally 
: ! self When the cultivation of the grass spread to 
iVof oTd d a \f Th * m P oss + ! ble t0 8 ay ; probably the introduction 
or Co hoi ?& 2 he , deri ^ atlon <> f *ne Fiji name Ca-bo 
*^J$^z£$&£T Seemann§ foun * in use 
Kriy n^ZcZl \ ° tiier - In the Mala y Peninsula, particu- 
prt s grown on a larger scale for the dis- 
eXTrecord' of it fromTh m ° Stly f ° r «>*""? P^P^ The 
h^^tt^dtaWhTl TAX0 ? 0MIC POSITION.-Considering 
it is remarkable that tt 1 °^ the tro P ics of both Hemispheres, 
have till now rema ned ^V*™ &U ? the affinit > r of thl8 ^ ra8S 
unintelligible hu? ZL f ♦ ^ U Would indeed be ( l uite 
that it lowers Itl^mef aIrea , dy WeU known to Knmphina, 
been persistently n£& X ^ ™ d 0n that account haS 
clue to it was river . ?n I J collector s- It is true that a 
herbarium and Lambert'* 1 i ■ s P ecim «ns from Roxburgh's 
some.easonXy^malnef.^i 11 the Brifcish Museum > bufc for 
as existed in other TerbaH, ly unnoticed > ™* such specimens 
___J^vu^ariajvere, m the absence of sufficient 
t taS?n Tit 086.^ p a 3 ^ U Ho; SCh ?* S ^ See ' ^ '• < 1901 >' P' 173 ' 
i s B ^; n , BuU - Soc - Bot - p —- -oi n ^\iz^ Fi i\ p - 69 - 
II Loureiro, Flor. Cochinoh. (1790), p . 646 . 
