TRADE OIL OF GERANIUM. 169 



Geranium. 1 This liquid is known in India as Roshe or Host 1859. 

 Oil, 2 and in the London market as Oil of Ginyer-Grass or of Roshe Oil 

 Geranium. It is the* produce of the more northern parts of ^' om Bombay. 

 India, where it is obtained by the distillation of certain grasses 

 of the genus Andropogon, but the precise species of which I 

 am at present unable from personal knowledge to name. 



From the Report cf the External Commerce of Bombay for 

 the year 1856-7, a valuable mass of statistics, compiled by 

 R Spooner, Esq., Keporter-General, and published by authority 

 of Government, I find that Roslie (or Rosia) Oil was exported 

 from Bombay during the year in question to the extent of 

 1922 gallons. Of this enormous quantity, 541 gallons were 

 shipped to England, and the remaining 1381 gallons to the 

 Arabian Gulf. The Report does not state to what ports in the 

 Arabian Gulf this quantity of Roshe Oil is shipped ; but as 

 none is reported as shipped to Aden or Suez (for which places, 

 as for the United Kingdom or France, there are special returns), 

 it is plain that it is shipped to other ports than these. 



Now, although there are several other ports in the Arabian Import trade 

 Gulf, it is Jeddah, the port of Mecca, that stands foremost in ofjeddah - 

 importance. To quote a competent authority : 3 " From its 

 position, it is the entrep6t of all goods coming from India and 

 Egypt. The merchants of Cosseir, Yambo, Hodeyda and 

 Massowah draw their supply from it." According to Burton, 

 the value of the import trade of Jeddah with India amounts 

 to about 25 lacs of rupees (250,000) annually. 4 



Coupling these facts with the testimony of the Turks, that 

 the volatile oil called Idris Yaghi is imported from Mecca, and 

 still more with M. Guibourt's information that it is brought 

 from India, I think there is good circumstantial evidence for 



1 I must, however, admit that in English trade-lists the two are separately 

 enumerated, the Turkish fetching a higher price. 



2 This orthography, Professor H. H. Wilson informs me, is the most 

 correct, the word being Marathi, and written ^J[. (Vide Molesworth'a 

 Marathi and English Dictionary, 2nd. ed., Bombay, 1857). It is, however, 

 often spelt Rosa, Rosia, Rowsah or Reosa. 



3 R. Innes, Esq., of Cairo, quoted in Parkyn's Life in Abyssinia, vol. i. 

 p. 402. 



4 Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, vol. iii. p. 379. 



