GINGER-GRASS 



Schcenanthus, Spreng. According to Stapf 



arc at least two fairly distinct plants commonly assigned 



Linn. These are as 



A. laniger, Dei/., Fl. 



CYMBOPOGON 

 SCHCENANTHUS 



Ginger-grass 

 (I.e. 303-13, 



Oinger- 

 grass. 



C. 



i;ithors to Amlrtt/HH/oii 



follows : 



(<) C. Schcenanthus, Npreng.. PI. Pugil., 1816, ii., 15 

 Atl.int., 1793, ii., 3711 : /''/. Hr. Ind., vii., 203 (in part). 



linger- grass. This is the Schcenus, Schcenanthus, or Squinanthus, 

 ;uul to some extent also the Juncus odoratus, etc., etc., of Greek and Roman 

 writers, as also of most of the early writers on Materia Medica. An oil 

 v.l from it would appear to be known as GINGER-GRASS. The 

 ru'iitul mimes for the plant have been so much confused with the next 

 3 (if not with several other species) that it would be a bold step 

 nilei-d to separate them and to affirm that izkhir (Arab.), gurgiyah (Persian) 

 and bhiixtrina (Sansk.) denote this particular species and no other. It 

 r ollows accordingly that the modern vernaculars of India cannot be arbi- 

 ily separated. In fact it would perhaps be the safest course to call in 

 e aid of geographical distribution and to assign the names in common 

 e for perfume-yielding grasses in the respective areas where the spices 

 .bound, as being the names proper to these species. The present form, 

 ording to Stapf, is met with " from Morocco to the Panjab and Ladakh." 

 In the Panjab it is common in some of the desert tracts from Karachi 

 Peshawar and Ludhiaua, growing on rocks, in sand or in hard loamy 

 il." The Indian vernacular names best known for it within that area are 

 .vi and ghatyari. 

 It would appear that an oil is actually produced in the Panjab from OIL 



plant, though only very occasionally. In fact the reports that have 

 ppeared on the diversified properties of such oils are very possibly due to 

 .correct determinations of the plants concerned. In a few instances 

 icords of oil exist, however, that leave little room for doubt of having 

 n actually obtained from the present species. Edgeworth (Journ. Linn, 

 >oc., 1862, vi., 208) describes under the name CHnibopoyon Ariana the 

 plant met with in Multan the country where the Malli resided in the 

 time of Alexander the Great. Stapf has pointed out that on the label 

 i one of his specimens Edgeworth wrote, " An essential oil expressed 

 rom the roots, manufactured only at Kasur in the Panjab." This, adds 

 Stapf, " is probably the same kind of oil which Vigne records from Hassan 

 Abdal (between Attok and Rawalpindi) with these words : " A stimulating 

 oil is extracted and used in medicine." Mr. J. R. Drummond confirms used 

 Edgeworth's report by the information communicated to Stapf that a family medicln uy- 

 of priests at Kasur produced this oil quite recently (see Rosa, p. 926). 



It perhaps need hardly be reiterated that the oil in the above passages yard Eoota. 

 is spoken of as expressed from the roots, not from the leaves and shoots. 

 The fact of there being a medicinal root, or rather two species of roots the 

 nard of the early explorers of India known to all modern Indian medical 

 writers is of great historic interest, and the botanical evidence would 

 support belief that when dealing with the Western Panjab, Sind, Baluchi- 

 stan and Persia, the plant in question may be accepted as C. Scha'tmnth us. 

 Linn., but when dealing with the Eastern Panjab and the United Provinces, 

 it is in all probability the species presently to be discussed, viz. ( . 

 lirn niHcusii, Schult. 



(b) C. Jwarancusa, Schult., Mant., 1824, ii., 458 ; Nardus indicus, Blane, Phil. 

 Trans., 1790, Ixxx., 234, t. 16, f. 1; Andropogon Jwarancusa, Jones, As. Res., 

 1795, iv., 109 ; A. Ivarancusa, Dierbach, Fl. Apiciana, 73 ; A. Iwarancusa, Roxb., 



461 



