349 
by Dutt,* is interpreted as meaning the leaf-stalk of the Lotus, so 
that for this reason alone the passage quoted cannot be adduced 
as proof of an early knowledge of the distillation of oil from 
‘Khas Khas’ or ‘Vetiver.’ Indeed, the distillation of Vetiver 
oil in India seems to be of very limitedf extent and there is 
hardly any export, the oil being mainly produced in Huropean 
distilleries from the imported root; but even the import of the 
roots as a regular article of commerce appears to be of com- 
paratively recent date. 
NATURAL AREA AND CULTIVATION.—The natural area of Andro- 
pogon muricatus in India and Ceylon includes practically the whole 
country,‘in the north up to altitudes of 600 m. Although common 
in many parts of the country, particularly on the banks of rivers 
and in rich, marshy soil, it is also at present, as in Rheede's time, 
occasionally cultivated, as for instance in Rajputana and in Chutia 
Nagpur. EHastwards the area extends into Burma. Throughout 
the Malayan region, however, it occurs only in the cultivated state 
or asan escape from gardens. It has also been introduced into 
the Mascarenes, the West Indies, and Brazil ; but it seems that in 
these countries oil is not distilled to any appreciable extent, except 
perhaps in Reunion, where the grass must have been in cultivation 
for at least 100 years, as the first sample of Vetiver-oil that was 
chemically examinedt (in 1809) came from there. 
12. Andropogon (Sect. Amphilophis) odoratus, Lisb. 
Usadhana. 
This is a little-known grass which was discovered by Dymock 
at Thana in 1875 and mentioned on account of its strong odour of 
ginger under its vernacular name, Usadhana, in the first edition 
of his “‘ Materia Medica of Western India” (p. 693). In the 
second edition of that work (p. 853) it was referred to Andropogon 
Nardus. Subsequently it was, however, recognised as a new 
species by Mrs. J. C. Lisboa,§ and described as A. odoratus. This 
very aromatic grass is used by the peasantry of the Thana district 
for medicinal purposes. An essential oil of a golden-yellow toa 
deep sherry colour, with a distinctive odour, was obtained from it 
by distillation, but it has not yet become an article of commerce. — 
The odour is, according to the “ Pharmacographia Indica,” vol. iii., 
p. 970, at first that of cassia and rosemary, but afterwards that of 
oil of cassia or, according to Gildemeister and Hoffmann,] that of 
pine-needle oil. 
GINGHR-GRASS. 
(Gildemeister and Hoffmann, Volatile Oils, p. 285.) 
Gildemeister and Hoffmann mention in their work on volatile 
oils a “ginger-grass oil,” of which they say that it is “an inferior 
quality of palmarosa oil, or a mixture of the latter with much (up 
* Dutt, Mat. Med. Hind., ed. 2. (1900), p. 109. 
+ Duthie (Fodd. Grass. N. India, p. 37) mentions that at Bhira, in Oudh, a 
perfume called itae is extracted from the roots of Vetiveria zizanioides, and used 
medicinally under the name of urayia. 
+ Vauquelin, in Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Par., vol. xiv. (1809), pp. 28-31. 
§ Lisboa in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. iv. (1889), p. 123. 
|| Gildemeister & Hoffmann, Vol, Oils, p. 299. 
