MEDICINAL GRASS 



Nardus 

 Indicus. 



CYMBOPOGON 



SCHCENANTHUS 



Medicinal Grass 



Fl. Ind., i., 275-7 ; Dalz. and Gibs., Fl. Bomb., 1861, 301-2 ; Lisboa, Journ. 

 Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc., 1891, vi., 66; also Bomb. Grass., 85; Andropogon 

 laniger, Duthie, Fodd. Grass. N. Ind., 35-6, t. 23 ; Fl. Br. Ind., vii., 203 (in 

 part). 



Sweet-scented Medicinal Grass. Of this plant the Nardus indicus 

 of early writers Stapf observes that it occurs on the outer hill-zone of 

 the United Provinces, Kumaon, Garhwal, and westward as far as Pesha- 

 war mainly in the neighbourhood of watercourses. This is, therefore, a 

 much more abundant Indian form than the preceding. It frequents, as 

 a rule, colder and moister regions. But the name jwarankusa, which 

 Stapf treats as Sanskrit, is so in derivation very probably, but was appar- 

 ently never used by even the most recent of Sanskrit authors as the specific 

 name for this or any other grass. Dutt (Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 271) 

 gives the Sanskrit name lamajjaka as denoting A. Iwarancusa, Roxb. 

 the lamjak of Hindi and the karankusa of Bengali. But according to him, 

 the A. SchcRnanthiis (the bhustrina, Sanskrit, and ganda bena, Bengali) 

 was the plant we now call C. citratus, so that the Sanskrit and vernacular 

 names above very ppssibly denoted both C. Jwarancnsu, Schult., and 

 C. Schcenanthns, Linn. [See Cyperus rotundus, p. 466.] 



Duthie gives it the following vernacular names (some of which may, 

 however, denote C. Schcenanthns) : sirghurai, soldra, bur, khair, 

 gandhi, khawi, gander, runa, dabsulo, babhori, jardmkush, azkhir, khavi, 

 gandel none can be said to be derived from its supposed Sanskrit 

 name. Roxburgh, who rendered the name jwarancusa as iwarancusa, 

 gives as its synonyms ibharankusha, iwarankusha, karankusha, and says 

 these are Bengali, but makes no mention of Sanskrit names. So also Dutt 

 accepts karankusa as Bengali, but does not give jwarankusa as a Sanskrit 

 name. Moreover, Roxburgh very properly observes that as stated by 

 Blane, the virtue of the plant resides entirely in the root. Duthie, speaking 

 doubtless of this grass under Andropogon laniger, Desf., says it is 

 one of the sweet-scented grasses, " the roots of which are sometimes used 

 like khas-khas in the manufacture of tatties." " As a fodder grass it does 

 not rank high in regard to its nutritive qualities. It is, however, largely 

 made use of by cattle when it is young and tender. Its scent is said to 

 affect the flavour of their milk. It is often stacked and forms a useful 

 supply in times of scarcity. Mr. Coldstream says that it will keep good in 

 stack for upwards of ten or twelve years." " The khair grass grows in 

 hollows where water collects, and seems to prefer kallar, that cows 

 graze upon it if hard pressed, but not otherwise ; also that bar house- 

 wives use wisps of this grass to clean out vessels used for churning and 

 holding milk." 



The perfume being chiefly resident in the root, not in the stems and 

 leaves, justifies the association of the Nard (perhaps more C. Schcenan- 

 thtis than C. Jwarancusa) with the story of the Phoenician followers 

 of the army of Alexander the Great in Lus and of the confusion that long 

 existed regarding the spikenard of the ancients. This, doubtless, is the 

 plant spoken of by Pliny and in more recent times by Garcia de Orta as 

 found on the banks of the Ganges. 



The preceding observations may be accepted as setting forth the separation 

 of the two forms of Nard, both of which industrially have been treated as one 

 plant. It has also been affirmed that the chief property of the plant is 

 its sweetly scented roots. But apparently the leaves and shoots of one or 

 other (or of a third species not separately recognised from them) yields 

 by distillation an oil with slightly different properties from rusa. In some 



462 



Spikenard 

 versus Nard. 



