324 
citratum,” or of the Malabar grass with the “Gramen citratum.” 
The result of all this was, of course, much vagueness in the term 
and great confusion. This becomes particularly obvious in 
collating the vernacular names which have been identified with 
‘““lemon-grass.” There were other causes also which tended to 
obscure the history and the characters of the original ‘“ lemon- 
grass,” and finally made it possible that a grass which is so widely, — 
though not intensely cultivated, not in India only but all over the 
tropics should, in Hackel’s great Monograph of the Andropogoneae 
(p. 605), be hiding uuder the cloak of an American variety of 
Andropogon Nardus, whilst its botanical name, Andropogon 
citratus, by which it has been known to Indian botanists and most 
pharmacists, is simply referred to with the words: “aut ad 
A. Nardum aut ad A. Schoenanthum pertinet”’ (p. 608). 
- Although Browne tells us that at his time the Madras natives 
did not take to the lemon-grass, it subsequently became fairly 
popular throughout the Carnatic and finally all over India. 
Roxburgh,* writing about 100 years after Browne, was able to 
say : ‘On the coast (of Coromandel) I have only found this 
elegant valuable species in a state of cultivation, few gardens 
being without it.” Similarly, Rottler says on a label, written 
probably at the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th 
century, and attached to a specimen collected in the extreme south 
of the Peninsula : “ Frequentissima in hortis.” When it was 
introduced in Bengal is uncertain. It was in cultivation in the 
Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, in Roxburgh’s time; but apart from 
this, Roxburgh seems to have only known it from the ‘coast’ (of 
Coromandel). Carey’st observation that it covers extensive tracts 
in Northern Bengal is wrong and refers probably to C. pendulus, 
‘Stapf. It is true that Fleming,t as well as Roxburgh,§ quotes 
Bengali name for it, Gundbel or Gundha bena, but that name 
occurs as early as the middle of the 15th century as a Hindi 
synonym of ‘Izkhir’ in the Ulfaz Udwiyah,|| and most probably 
was originally applied to C. Martini or possibly also to one 
or more of the other aromatic Andropogons which are indigenous 
in Northern India. The Sanscrit names, Malatrinukung (Mala- 
trina) and Bhoostrinung (Bhutrina), which Roxburgh§$ quotes 
for the lemon-grass, are in a similar position. Concerning these 
I would refer the reader to my chapter on C. Martini. Royle,{ 
in his ‘ List of Articles of Materia Medica obtained in the Bazars 
of the Western and Northern Provinces of India,’ does not 
enumerate the lemon-grass, but he mentions it in his ‘ Illustrations 
‘of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains,’ p. 425 (1840), under 
‘Roxburgh’s name, ‘A. Schoenanthus,’ as “only found in gardens 
in Northern India.” From the West Coast it is first mentioned 
by Graham** (1836). When it reached Ceylon is unknown ; 
Moonfft (1824) mentions it, but as identical with Pangiri Mana. 
* Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ed. Carey & Wall., vol. i. (1820), p. 278. 
_ + Carey in a footnote in Roxburgh, FI. Ind., ed. Carey & Wall., vol. i. (1820), 
. 278. 
- t Fleming in Asiat. Research., vol. xi. (1810), p. 156. Bai 
§ Roxburgh, Hort. Beng. (1814), p. 7, and Fl. Ind. l.c, 
|| Ulfaz Udwiyah, transl. Gladwin. 
q@ Royle in Journ. As. Soc. Beng., vol. i. (1832), p. 458. 
** Graham, Cat. Pl. Bombay, p. 238. ; 
++ Moon, Cat, Pl. Ceylon (1824), p. 72. 
