338 
type is repeated on a smaller scale in Duthie’s specimen from 
Asirgarh Fort and in Wight’s No. 1702, and on a still smaller 
scale in the slender form which is prevalent in the southern and 
south-western part of the area. How far those differences are due 
to the conditions of the habitat can only be decided in the field ; 
but they certainly suggest edaphic influences, such as the conditions 
of soil and water supply. According to Malcolmson, the Rusa- 
grass, in the Deccan, affects particularly the trap, more or less 
avoiding the granite, so much so that he was able to trace the green- 
stone dykes across the granite by the luxuriance of the grass, whilst 
Fernandez writes that it grows on the hill sides as well as on 
plateau land and in periodically flooded plains, all of which indeed. 
implies a considerable diversity of local conditions. Still it is 
noteworthy that in the ample material at my disposal the 
‘pachnodes’ type is not represented from any point south of 18° N. 
HARLY RECORDS OF RUSA OIL AND RUSA GRASS.—It was 
Dr. N. Maxweil,* Assistant Surgeon at Asirgarh Fort in Nimar, 
who in 1824 in a letter to the Medical Board of the Hast India 
Company called attention to a fragrant grass which was “found 
in great abundance on the sides of the Hill fort, as well as 
all over Malwah. From it,” he says, “is extracted a highly 
pungent essential oil (when in its pure state), which I can from 
experience confidently recommend as of the highest benefit, when 
applied by friction in rheumatic affections,” and further, that “ it 
is prepared by a very rude process under Jaum Ghaut, in the 
vicinity of the station of Mundlaisir.” The specimens which he 
sent with his letter were submitted to Wallich, who, in his reply 
to the Medical Board, reported as stated above, adding that he 
himseif had found the plant abundant in Nepal. In the follow- 
ing year, J. Forsyth,t who had been directed to investigate the 
matter on the spot, presented a paper to the Medical and Physical 
Society of Calcutta, in which he gives a detailed account of the 
preparation and the sale of the oil and the conditions under 
which the grass grew and was gathered. He also gives ‘ Roosa- 
ka-Tel”’ as the native name of the oil. Of the grass, he reports 
that it“is met with in frequent distinct patches in the jungle 
throughout the province of Nemaur, but in greatest abundance 
along the foot of the Vindhya range, near Nalcha, at which two 
placest only I[ believe it is prepared, at least to amy amount. 
About the latter end of August, it begins to bud, and continues to 
flower in tolerable vigour till the end of October, during which 
period alone it gives out the oil in sufficient quantity to cover the 
expense and trouble of its preparation, as after this it speedily 
dries up, and what little oil it does yield is extremely acrid, and 
unfit for use. . . . The oil is obtained from the grass by 
distillation . . . theplant is cut across where it begins to give 
out its flower, and bound up into small bundles. . . .” A few 
years later (in 1830), Charles Hatchett, F.R.S., a prominent chemist, - 
received a sample of oil from a Mr. Samuel Swinton, who had 
been in the Hast India Company’s service for many years and had 
resided for some time in Malwa. MHatchett made the grass which 
* Maxwell in Trans, Med. & Phys. Soe. Calcutta, vol. i. (1825), pp. 367-368, 
t Forsyth in Trans. Med. & Phys. Soc. Caleutta, vol. iii. (1827), pp. 213-218. 
+ Viz., Jaum and Nalcha. 
