246 Graminecs. \Andropogon. 



awn, which is 2 in. long, column twisted, hispid, palea o; 

 lodicules cuneate ; anth. short ; styles and stigmas short ; 

 pedicelled spikelet as long as the sessile, narrowly lanceolate, 

 acuminate, subterete, glumes I and II speckled with rusty red 

 dots, I convex, many-veined, sparsely hairy, II oblong, obtuse, 

 apiculate or aristulate, 3-veined, ciliate, III obovate-oblong, 

 obtuse, III and IV hyaline, obtuse, 1 -veined, ciliate with 

 deflexed hairs, III linear-oblong, IV subspathulate, tip entire 

 or bifid ; anth. slender; besides the above bisexual and male 

 spikelets there are solitary sessile linear oblong speckled 

 males. 



Badulla district, up to 3000 ft. elevation (Thwaites). Awns golden- 

 col'd. 



Trop. Asia, Africa, and Australia. 



Hackel, who makes four varieties of this species, describes the Ceylon 

 plant as var. Thwaitesii, characterised by the proper spathes being from 

 one-half to twice as long as the peduncle, and having two pairs of homo- 

 geneous spikelets and one of heterogeneous in the long-pedicelled spike. 

 These characters I find inconstant. The leaves of the Ceylon plant are 

 very mach narrower than some Khasian. 



There is in the Peradeniya Herbarium an indifferent specimen of 

 what may be a very tall robust form of A. filipenduhcs, and so named 

 by Trimen, collected by Ferguson at Uda Pusselawa. 



A. CITRATUS, DC. — Ferguson in his Grasses Indigenous to Ceylon, 

 p. 32, gives No. 116, A. citratus, DC, Lemon grass, as cultivated for 

 Lemon-grass oil. This species was founded by De Candolle on a flower- 

 less plant in the Montpellier Bot. Garden, of which Hackel says that 

 from the description it may be either A. Nardus or A. Schcenanthus. 

 "Watt (Diet, of Econ. Prod, of India, i. 242) cites for it A. Schcenanthus, 

 Wall. Cat. PI. Rar. t. 280, which Hackel refers to A. Nardus, var. 

 grandis. Watt describes it as a large coarse glaucous grass, largely 

 cultivated all over India, Ceylon, and the Eastern Archipelago, rarely or 

 never flowering, and yielding Lemon-grass oil, Verbena oil, or the Indian 

 Melissa oil. He adds that it is called Penguin in Ceylon, where the 

 annual produce of its otto is 1 500 lbs. ; and that its chief use is as a perfume 

 and for flavouring tea. In a stray note of Dr. Trimen's which I find 

 am >ngst his MSS., is the following: — 'Sera, the Malay name for A. 

 Schcenanthus, A. citratus (J) var. with narrow leaves. This is grown in 

 native gardens, and the leaves are used only to flavour curries. The 

 lemon scent is rather faint. Not known to flower.' 



There is no specimen named A. citratus in the Peradeniya Herbarium, 

 but Thwaites alludes, under A. Martini, to Lemon oil as derived from 

 A. Schcenanthus, adding that it is considered not to be indigenous, and 

 that it rarely flowers. 



Ferguson says, I.e. of this grass, 'The centres of the leaf-buds are 

 sold in every bazaar in Ceylon, and are universally used in curries to give 

 them a flavour. I have no doubt that this plant was introduced by the 

 Malays to Ceylon, and I believe it to be that figured and described by 

 Rumph in his Herb. Amboinense, vi. t. 6, f. 2. About twenty years 

 ago Mrs. Winter Jun r , of Badegama, near Galle, sent me a specimen in 

 flower, and informed me that it was the first flower that had been seen 

 for twenty years. After several years' careful cultivation " of the Lemon 



