1372 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANT. 



swellings ; added to purgatives it is administered in rheu- 

 matism ; the flowers (calyxes) are used as an haemostatic. 

 (Pharmacogr. Ind. Ill 563.) 



Chemical composition.— Fvom 56 lbs. of the dry grass purchased in the 

 bazar we obtained the large yield of 8| ozs. of essential oil ; it had a speeifie 

 gravity of '995 at 25° F., and rotated a ray of polarized light 8'0 degrees to 

 the left in a column 200 mm. long. The colour was that of pale sherry. 

 According to Schimmel & Co., the essential oil reminds one of the odour of 

 Elemi oil. Its sp. gr. is *915, the optical rotation + 34°. It boils between 

 170° and 250°, and contains phellandrene (Bericht von Schimmel & Co,, April, 

 1892) —Pharmacogr. Ind. III. 564. 



1339. A. Sehoenanthus, Linn., h.f.b.i., vii. 204. 

 Roxb. 93. 



Syn. : — Cymbopogon martini, Stapf. 



Vern. : — Rusa ghas ; musel ; mirchia, gand bujina ; pala- 

 khari (H.) ; Aghya-ghas; gandha hena (B.) ; Ranus (Pb.) ; 

 Rosegavat ; rohisha (Mar.). 



Habitat .- — Central India, the United Provinces ; Panjab ; the 

 Deccan, and the Central Provinces. 



Root perennial, with long wiry fibres. Culms erect, from 

 three to six feet high, often ramous, smooth, filled with a 

 spongy pith. Leaves very long, tapering to a very fine point, 

 smooth in every part and of a soft delicate texture. Sheaths short- 

 er than the joints on full grown plants, with a membranaceous 

 stipulary process at the mouth. Panicles as in A. Iwarancusa ; 

 spikelets paired, but with only three joints. Flowers also 

 paired, &c. as in the former species, only there the lowermost 

 pair on the most sessile of the two spikeleis are both male, and 

 one of them rests upon a smooth, convex, callous receptacle ins- 

 tead of a pedicel. Rachis jointed, and wooly. Calyx as in A. 

 Iwarancusa. Corolla one-valved, a long black awn occupies the 

 place of the other, which has two small filaments near its base. 

 Nectary, &c. as in the foregoing species. (Roxburgh.) 



Mr. R. S. Pearson, I. F. S., F. L. S., in his " Note on the 

 Economic uses of Rosha Grass," published in the Indian Forest 

 Records, Vol. V., Part VII., writes — 



From a commercial point of view there are two forms of this botanical 



