THE ODOUR OF ROSE. 45 
tint, Munro; but not the A. Schenanthus of Wallich*, which is 
identical with A. citratus, De Cand., and yields Lemon-grass oil. 
In Modeen Sheriff’s ‘Supplement to the Pharmacopeeia of India,’ 
the vernacular names of Lemon-grass are given under A. Schenan- 
thus mstead of under A. citratus. 
The various vernacular names for the plant in India are :—Agya- 
ghds and Ganda-bena, Bengal; Bujina and Pala-Khari, N.W. 
Provinces; Mirchia-gard, Siwaliks; Rose-gavat and Rohisha, 
Bombay ; Ratins, Punjab. 
The oil is known in commerce under a variety of names, such 
as, in England, “ Ginger-grass,” ‘Turkish Oil of Geranium,” 
“*Rusa-grass Oil,” “Oil of Nimar” or “‘ Nemaur.” In the 
otto-producing districts of the Balkan it is known to Europeans 
as “‘ Essence of Geranium” and oil of ‘‘ Palma-Rosa;” in India 
it is called “ Rusa Oil,” “ Roshel,”’ ‘* Rusa-ka-tel ;”? in Egypt, 
Arabia, and Constantinople it appears under the names of “ Idris- 
Yaghi” and ‘‘ Entreshah,” names which may mislead to the belief 
in a variety of oils produced from several plants. These names 
seem to be mostly of modern origin. The name “ Rusa-grass ”’ is 
certainly more appropriate than “ Ginger-grass.”” There is a grass 
found about old wells near Bombay which really has an odour of 
ginger, but it is rather a rare plant. The name “ geranium oil” 
has caused much confusion with the true geranium oil derived 
from various species of Pelargonium, and has apparently come into 
existence from the fact that the so-called “ ginger-grass oil”’ is 
used to adulterate the true geranium oil, which, in its turn, is used 
to adulterate the otto of rose. The grass is found growing wild in 
large tracts in the Northern and Eastern provinces, and particu- 
larly in the North-west Provinces and the Punjab; it is abundant 
everywhere in the Deccan, in Central India, and is cultivated in 
Kashmir in localities formerly devoted to the rose. It has recently 
been discovered in British Baluchistan, by J. H. Lace, Deputy 
Commissioner of Forests in India. In his valuable paper on the 
“Vegetation of the Hurnai Railway Route,” recently read before the 
Linnean Society +, he mentions having found it on the lower hills. 
Apparently the first mention made of this oil was by Maxwell 
in 1825 {, but it is only within comparatively recent times that 
* Plant. As. Rar, iii. t. 280. 
+ Journ. Linn. Soe. xxviii. p. 293. 
t Calcutta Med. and Phys. Trans, i. p. 367, 
