327 
50 years later Herbert de Jager made on De-Bondt’s unfounded 
identification, leave no doubt that the grass was. the Sereh of. the 
Malays. De Jager’s criticism was contained in a letter to Rum- 
phius, dated Batavia, 6th. July, 1683,* where De Bondt’s grass is, 
referred to as ‘Sire’ or “Gramen Melissae Odore,” the earliest: 
passage I can find for the use of the word “ Sire” (now usually 
spelt “Sereh”), which was even then widely used throughout 
Malaya, for Rumphius says “ Malaice, Balayice, &c. ; ubique in hisce 
insulis.”” Rumphius had become acquainted with it in Amboina, 
where he resided from 1653 onwards, and in the neighbouring 
islands. He drew attention to it in a short note published in 1684,f 
but probably written earlier under the influence of De Jager’s letter 
quoted above. In this note he speaks of the grass as ‘ Schoen- 
anthum Amboinicum, and gives in an accompanying plate an 
excellent figure of the ‘root’ as he calls it, that is the heads of 
the branches of. the rhizome with the base of the leaf-tuft spring- 
ing from them, evidently just in the condition ready for use. 
Comparing it with the Arabian ‘ Schoenanthum,’ he remarks : 
“Schoenanthi nostratis Amboinici radices ab Arabico nonnihil 
discrepant. Nostrum sterile est: Arabicum floret. Radices hae 
odoratae sunt et acres.” Then there followed, written before 
1695, in the fifth volume of his Herbarium Amboinense, that long. 
chapiert on ‘Schoenanthum Amboinicum, Siree,’ which from. 
Linnaeus onward has been often quoted, but, I am _ afraid, 
rarely read with the attention it deserves. It is, like almost 
all that Rumphius has written, pervaded by that charm of direct- 
ness and lucidity with which the phenomena of nature reflect. 
themselves only to the clear and open mind of a great and un- 
biassed observer and sincere lover of nature such as Rumphius 
was. It is no exaggeration to say that there is, in his account of 
the Sereh, more information concerning the general features and 
the biology of the grass than in any other publication dealing 
with it. The chapter is accompanied by a figure, which represents 
a plant evidently taken from a garden, one-fourth natural size, . 
and as faithful as can be. The fragment of an inflorescence 
which is added is less. satisfactory, unless it was drawn—as is 
almost certain—from a diseased or anomalous panicle. I quote 
the essential part of Rumphius’ description, translating om the 
Dutch text :— 
-“The Siree of Amboina is no doubt a Schoenanthum. ee 
the Arabian Schoenanthum it differs in that it emits fewer stems 
and is sterile, or at least produces flowers only very rarely ; nor is 
it so aromatic. It forms a dense bush of so many leaves that 
they hide the stem, the root and the ground oo around. 
them. 
“The leaves are very long, narrow and thin, like those of a 
sedge, 3-34 feet long, scarcely as wide as a finger, finely ribbed 
lengthwise, rough to touch, somewhat cutting if stroked backwards, 
bluish-green, and so lank that they are all bent over on to one 
* Herb. de Jager in Valentini, Hist. Simpl. (1732), p. 392. 
+ Rumphius in Sie. Cur. sive Ephem. Acad. Nat. Cur., Dec. ii., Anno iii. 
— (684), p. 80, tab. 
fig, 2 
i Aap Herb. Amboin, (cura Burmanni, 1750), vol. v., p. 181, tab, (72, 
