329 
The name, however, by which, in Ceylon, it is distinguished from 
the latter is Sera or Saira (the Malay Sereh), and it seems to me 
therefore most likely that the grass was introduced into the island 
during the Dutch occupation of Ceylon. 
The comparatively recent date of the cultivation of the lemon- 
grass in India is also evident from the nature of the established 
vernaculars. I have already pointed out that the Tamil Vasana- 
pillu is merely the equivalent of the Portuguese “ Herba cheirosa,”’ 
under which name it was probably introduced. The term was 
taken up unchanged, or almost so, in Malayalim, Canarese, and 
Telugu. Another Tamil name, Karpura-pullu (Camphor grass), is 
equally descriptive, and the same applies to the Gujerati and 
Marathi vernaculars, which mean ‘Green tea,’ whilst the Dukni 
“name given by Ainslie,* namely, ‘Naring ke bas ka ghans,’ is a 
direct translation of “ lemon-grass.”’ 
INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA AND AFRICA.—The properties 
which recommended the grass to the native gardener of 
India also contributed to its early introduction into the colonies 
of those European Powers which then had possessions in India. 
W. Hamiltonf has pointed out that the ‘lemon-grass’ was intro- 
duced into Jamaica most probably in 1799. From there it soon 
spread to the other British islands in the West Indies “as an 
elegant and powerful diaphoretic under the popular name of 
lemon-grass.” It also found its way into the Spanish possessions. 
La Sagrat (1853) enumerates it under ‘ Andropogon Schoenanthus 
(Cymbopogon citriodorus),’ and states that it is cultivated in 
gardens in Cuba as‘ Yerba Limon.’ Grosourdy$ (1864) indicates 
it from Portorico as ‘ Limoncillo,’ under which name Sintenis 
collected it in that island in 1884. More recently it has also been 
reported from. Mexico as ‘té limon.’| In the French Antilles 
and in French Guiana it was known in the forties, if not earlier, 
as Citronelle,{ a name applied by the French to various aromatic 
herbs. Under the same name it is recorded from Mauritius by 
Bojer** as early as 1836, but there is no doubt that Desfontaine’stt 
‘A. citriodorum’ (1815) from Mauritius (Isle de France), which 
he identified with ‘ Andropogon Nardus, Pers.,’ was also lemon- 
grass. Very probably it was introduced under Poivré’s active 
administration (1767-1773). “Citronelle”’ is also very generally 
grown as a garden herb in Réunion, and Baron found it in Central 
Madagascar in 1883. Through the Portuguese it reached East 
Africa—when, I do not know—and subsequently also West Africa. 
Welwitsch{{ found it, in 1859, frequently cultivated near Mosgsa- 
medes, where it had been introduced from Mozambique by a 
Dr. Sales in 1855. He also came across it in 1854 in Loanda, 
whither it was said to have been brought from Sierra Leone. It igs 
* Ainslie, Mat. Med. (1813), p. 128. 
+ Hamilton in Pharm. Journ., vol. vi. (1897), p. 369. 
+ La Sagra, Fl. Cub., vol. iii., p. 321. 
§ Grosourdy, Med. Bot. Criollo, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 161. 
|| Schimmel & Co., Semi-Annual Reports, Oct.-Nov., 1903, p. 27. 
4 Guibourt, Hist. Nat. Drog. Simpl., vol. ii. (1849), p. 114. 
** Bojer, Hort. Maurit. (1837), p. 375. ° 
tt Desfontaines, Tabl. Ecole. Bot., ed. 2 (1815), p. 15. 
_ t+ Welwitsch in sched. ; see also Cat, Afr. Pl, Welwitsch, vol. ii., p. 155, 
