313 
Kasur produced this oil quite recently. Dymock* obtained from 
the grass purchased in the bazar an essential oil with an odour 
like that of Elemi oil (Schimmel & Co.), probably due to its 
Phellandrine content. The yield is rather large, l oz. of oil to 
64 lbs. of the dry grass. 
This is then all that is left of the once much-prized drug: a 
few dusty bundles of hay in oriental bazars, a few ounces of oil, 
and the ancient name under cover of which other grasses have 
found their way into the pharmacopoeias and the chemical industry 
of our day. There seems to be, however, no reason why the old 
_article should not to some extent recover its lost prestige, at least 
in the province of perfumery, which is ever in search of change 
and variety. 
2. Cymbopogon Jwarancusa, Schult. 
(Andropogon Jwarancusa, Jones.) ~ 
Jwarancusa (Hind.) 4-la 4 
DISCOVERY OF THE GRASS AND DERIVATION OF THE NAME.— 
This grass became first known (1790) through a publication on the 
‘Nardus Indica or Spikenard’ by G. Blane,t whose brother dis- 
covered it in 1786. His account of the discovery may be worth 
reproducing : “ Travelling with the Nabob Vizier, on one of his 
hunting excursions towards the northern mountains, I was sur- 
prised one day, after crossing the river Rapty, about 20 miles from 
the foot of the hills, to perceive the air perfumed with an aromatic 
smell] ; and on asking the cause, I was told it proceeded from the 
roots of the grass that were bruised or trodden out of the ground 
by the feet of the elephants and horses of the Nabob’s retinue. 
The country was wild and uncultivated, and this was the common 
grass which covered its surface, growing in large tufts close to 
each other, very rank, and in general from 3 to 4 feet in length. 
As it was the winter season there was none of it in flower. 
Indeed, the greatest part of it had been burned down on the road 
we went, in order that it might be no impediment to the Nabob’s 
encampments. I collected a quantity of the roots to be dried 
for use, and carefully dug up some of it, which 1 sent to be 
planted in my garden at Lucknow. It here throve exceedingly, 
and in the rainy season it shot up spikes about 6 feet high. 
ie It is called by the natives Terankus, which means 
literally in the Hindu language, fever restrainer, from the virtues 
they attribute to it in that disease. . . . It is esteemed a 
powerful medicine in all kinds of fevers, whether continued or 
intermittent. The whole plant has a strong aromatic odour ; but 
both the smell and the virtues reside principally in the husky 
roots, which in chewing have a bitter, warm, pungent taste, 
accompanied with some degree of that kind of glow in the mouth 
which cardamoms occasion.” Banks, who received a specimen 
from Blane, recognised it as a hitherto undescribed species of 
Andropogon; bat neither he nor Blane gave it aname. On the 
- * Dymock, Warden and Hooper, Pharmacogr. Indica., vol. iii. (1893), p. 564. 
‘ am in Phil. Trans., vol. lxxx. (1790), p. 284; abridged edition, vol. xvi., 
Pp. 006, 
— 26296 B 
