317 
Romburgh* in 1892 as ‘Roempoet sereh wangi’ under A. Iwaran- 
cusa, and is stated to have been introduced into the ‘ Cultuurtuin’ 
in 1891. He drew the attention of Schimmel & Co. to the oil 
prepared from the Javanese crop; this reference eventually led to 
the establishment of citronella distilleries in Java. According to 
Gildemeister and Hoffmann,f both the Malay Peninsula and the 
Java grass represent the ‘ Maha Pengiri’ variety. Quite recently 
experiments in growing Citronella grass have been made in the 
West Indies. 
VARIETIES OF CITRONELLA GRASS.—Two kinds of Citronella 
grasst have recently been distinguished by the growers: ‘ Maha 
Pengiri’ (the Great Pengiri), and ‘Lenabatu or Lana Batu 
Pengiri,’ or briefly, ‘ Lenabatu.’ The former is also known as ‘ Old 
Citronella Grass,’ or ‘ Winter’s Grass,’ because it is now almost 
exclusively grown by Messrs. Winter & Son ; the other is spoken of 
as ‘ New Citronella Grass.”” Specimens of both varieties received at 
Kew from Galle, so far as they go, do not show any morphological 
differences. I must, however, add that the inflorescences of both are 
very defective, and one is distinctly diseased, so that no complete 
comparison is possible. The Old Citroneila Grass is described§ as 
a surface feeder which soon grows out of the ground and gets 
exhausted, dying off after 10 or 15 years of cultivation ; and it “ has 
somewhat broad leaves, and the bushes formed are larger than the 
second” (i.e., Lenabatu). It yields a finer oil, but the necessity 
of frequent replanting has led to its being more and more 
replaced by the Lenabatu variety. The chemical differences of 
the oils derived from the two varieties are mainly in the propor- 
tional amount of citronellal and geraniol, Maha Pengiri containing 
50°45 per cent. of citronellal and 38°15 per cent. of geraniol, and 
Lenabatu 28°2 per cent. and 32°9 per cent. respectively. ; 
ORIGIN OF CITRONELLA GRASS.—C. Nardus in its typical 
form—that is, the form represented by Hermann’s specimen—is 
only known in the cultivated state. It is an awnless grass, the 
valve or flowering glume of the hermaphrodite spikelet being 
either entire or more or less bifid, with a minute point or a very 
fine and short bristle from the sinus. The flowers are usually 
apparently normal, but do not seem to set freely, and in some 
cases all the spikelets are male or otherwise imperfectly developed, 
or they are infested with Ustilago. On the whole, the repro- 
ductive system seems to be debilitated. This is the case with all 
the specimens I have seen, irrespective of their origin, and is 
evidently the result of the treatment the grass has experienced 
from the grower, in whose interest it is that they should not 
flower, as, according to Gildemeister and Hoffmann,f “ otherwise 
the tufts become too dense, become yellow within, and spoil.” Still 
a certain amount is allowed to seed for renewing the plantations, 
the usual mode of propagation being apparently by dividing the 
bushes. The reduction or suppression of the awn is no doubt in 
correlation with the partial sterility of the cultivated C. Nardus, 
* Romburgh, Plantentuin de Buitenz.. 1817-92 (1892), p. 388. 
+ Gildemeister and Hoffmann, Vol. Oils (1900), p. 291. 
t Winter in Chemist and Druggist, lii. (1897), p. 646; Gildemeister and 
Hoffmann, Vol. Oils (1900), p. 291. 
§ Tropic. Agricult., vol. xvi. (1897), p. 269, and vol, xvii, (1898), p, 794. 
