331 
information by the collectors, never connected with the ‘lemon- 
grass.’ After the necessarily somewhat lengthy exposition of its 
' history, it will, however, be comparatively easy to establish the 
Systematic position of the grass. 
When, soon after the publication of the first edition of the ‘Species 
Plantarum,’ the first copy of Rumphius’ ‘Herbarium Amboini- 
cum’ reached Sweden, Linnaeus’ pupil, O. Stickman, set to work 
to identify Rumphius’ plants as far as possible with Linnaeus’ 
species, so that they might be added as synonyms. The result 
was a dissertation by Stickman under the title ‘ Herbarium 
Amboinense,’ originally published in May, 1754, but reprinted in 
an augmented form in ‘Amoenitates Academicae’ (vol. iv., 
pp. 112-143) in 1759. In this dissertation (p. 19 of the original, 
p- 1380 of the reprint) we find Rumphius’ ‘ Schoenanthum 
Amboinicum’ for the first time identified with Andropogon 
Schoenanthus, L. Burmann adopted this reduction at once; but 
Linnaeus may have hesitated, for although he accepted it in the 
10th edition of his ‘Systema Naturae,’ p. 1304 (1759), it is absent 
from the second edition of the ‘Species Plantarum’ (1763). 
It reappeared, however, in the llth and 13th editions of the 
Systema (1767 and 1774). Subsequently Lamarck* and Willdenowf 
followed Linnaeus in assuming the identity of the Malayan Siree 
with ‘ Andropogon Schoenanthus, L.,’ but also further confused 
the conception of the latter by throwing in Rheede’s Kodi-pullu 
and Ramacciam (Lamarck), and some of Klein’s and Rottler’s 
specimens from the Southern Peninsula (Willdenow). Hence 
it is not surprising that Roxburgh,{ too, relying on Willde- 
now’s ‘Species Plantarum,’ put down the scented grass of the 
Coromandel gardens, which he knew to be the Sereh of the 
Malays, as ‘Andropogon Schoenanthus, lL.’ Under that name 
the lemon-grass henceforth appeared very generally, until more 
recently the transference of the name “ Andropogon MSchoen- 
anthus” to the Rusa grass made it necessary to look out for 
another name for the ‘lemon-grass.’ For some time it was sunk 
in Andropogon Nardus (see my observations under that species 
and under Cymbopogon flexuosus); but in 1883 it was definitely 
recognized as a distinct species by Watt{ and enumerated as 
‘Andropogon citratus, DC.’ This was a bold assumption, as 
nobody seemed to know what the plant was that De Candolle 
had so named, there being neither a description nor the original in 
existence. Yet, Watt was right. What De Candolle| says of 
‘Andropogon citratus’ is this: “ Andropogon? citratum. Sub 
hoc nomine in hortis plurimis occurrit et in nostro etiam servatur 
gramen nondum florens etiamsi laete vigens, habitu fere Andro- 
pogonis Schoenanthi sed major et caldarium non requirens, 
distinctissimum in eo quod folia trita citri odorem grate spirant.” 
As the grass is not mentioned in Broussonet’s ‘Elenchus Plant. 
Hort. Monspel.’ (1804), and on the other hand is already referred 
to in 1811 by Roemer and Schultes,{’ who saw it growing in the 
* Lamarck, Encycl. vol. i. (1783), p. 375. 
+ Willdenow, Spec. Plant., vol. iv., part ii. (1806), p 915. 
t Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ed. Carey & Wall., vol. i. (1820), p. 278. 
§ Dict. Econ. Prod. of India, vol. i. (1883), part iv., p. 4. 
|| De Candolle, Cat. Plant. Monsp. (1813), p. 78. 
€ Roemer and Schultes, Systema, vol. iii, (1817), p. 833. 
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