RUSA-OIL PLANT 



CYMBOPOGON 



MARTINI 

 Ruua Oil 

 D.E.P., 

 i., 249-62. 



Vernacular 



N mi'-:. 



C. Martini, N/^/-/, I.e. :'>.T> II, :;:'. <;o : .Im/tnfXMjon Martini, 

 l>'".il>.. and the . I. ticfaenanthtut of must recent author-, Imt not, (if Linnaeus ; 

 f/. />'/. ///</.. vii., 204-5. 



This is the Rusa Oil plant of Northern, Western and Central India, 



which in European commerce has received various mm ii as " Pal- 



marosa," " Kust Indian Geranium," or simply "Indian-grass Oil." 



>ar Oil." etc., etc., the inferior qualities being sometimes returned 



as " Ginger-grass Oil." The vernacular names are numerous, but 



ins probable that no form of C. \tn-<fns exists as an abundant wild 

 plant on tin- plains and lower hills of the region where the rusa oil is 

 niainlv produced, the names given in that country must be viewed as 

 denoting the present species, except where they may embrace one or 

 ier of the forms of C. Sc/m-Htnit/imt as well. In South India wild 

 is of both C. \nriliiH and C. Sclm'iuutthutt are met with abun- 

 mtlv, and the vernacular names for the grass oils of that portion of 

 idia hopelessly confuse the species. It has been suggested that the 

 at general name " rusa " or " rusa-katel " (abbreviated into " roshel " 

 id rose oil) is in reality a corruption from "rose," seeing that the most 

 iportant use of the oil is the adulteration or fabrication of rose oil. But 

 opposed to that view it may be mentioned that until very recently 

 not even to-day) the people of India were not aware that the oil they 

 l goes mainly to Turkey to be used in admixture with rose oil. The Roee OIL 

 lost general names are rusa, rosa, rauns, rhausa, rhaunsa, roinsa, rosha- Sanskrit Names. 

 gavat, rohish, also gundhabena, mirchiagand, mircha, makora, gandi, panni, 

 chi/Htra bhor, tikhari, tikadi-moti, etc. According to Dutt (Mat. Med. 

 lind., 271) and the authors of the Pharmacographia Indica (I.e. 557), 

 is bhitstrina, bhutrina or Earth-grass of the Raja Nirghanta and is the 

 >liitiha of the Sanskrit authors and ihesurosa the " well flavoured," and 

 le su-gandha the " agreeable odour," of recent classical writers. 



Varieties and Races. It is a perennial grass plentiful throughout the Varieties, 

 rarmer tracts of India. There is no very direct evidence, however, of its 

 anywhere cultivated, though certain tracts of country are more or 

 ss protected and regularly leased out for the supply of the grass employed 

 the manufacture of the oil. There are six varieties of the species, de- 

 cribed in the Flora of British India, two of which are Burmese plants not 

 apparently utilised industrially, and a third would appear to be unim- 

 )rtant. Stapf has raised to specific rank the following of these varieties ; 

 it while the first mentioned affords the true rusa oil, the others may be 

 id in some instances have been used apparently for the same purpose : 

 (a) C. Martini, Stapf; A. Martini, Roxb., Fl. Ind., i., 277 ; A. nardoides, Nee* 

 part) ; A. pachnodes, Trin. ; A. Schosnanthus, Lisbon, Journ. Bomb. Nat. 

 list. Soc., 1889, iv., 120. 



This is the plant collected by General Martin in Ballaghat, Mysore, in 

 1791-2 and cultivated by him afterwards at Lucknow. There are specimens 

 it in the Kew Herbarium from Kashmir, Pan jab hills, Simla, Almorah, 

 rhwal, Nepal, also the Black Mountains, etc. ; of Bengal from Rajmahal and 

 ighbum ; of the Central Provinces, from Chanda district ; from Bombay ; 

 >m Rajputana ; and lastly from South India. 



(6) C. caesius, Stapf; A. ccesius, Nees (in part). The majority of the specimens 

 this form seen by me in the Kew Herbarium came from South India, 

 is evidently the plant of which Herbert de Jager wrote, in 1683, that he 

 aund whole fields fragrant with it when travelling in Coromandel, and of 

 "lich he found the people of Golconda preparing a perfume, 

 (c) C. polyneuros, Stapf; A. versicolor, Nees, in Wight, Cat. n. 1705 ; Lisboa, 

 iv., 120; 1891, vi., 65; A. polyneuros, Steud. A South Indian plant, 



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