I2 9 



Ceylon Exhibition. The account is a full one of the exhibition and 

 the discussions on various points of Agricultural work in Ceylon 

 and the speeches at the dinner that followed. 



The work is illustrated by photographs of the various people 

 connected with the show, the exhibition-pavilion, and some of the 

 exhibits and machinery, and there are also maps showing ihe 

 distribution of rubber plantations in some parts of the Malay 

 Peninsula. The book contains a good deal of interesting informa- 



H. N. Ridley. 



THE OIL-GRASSES 



The Kew Bulletin No. 8 of 1906 which has just appeared is 

 occupied by a very interesting article by Dr. Stapf on the oil- 

 grasses of India and Ceylon. The history of these grasses and 

 their synonymy hitherto terribly confused has been very carefully 

 worked out, and the correct names definitely settled. Twelve oil 

 yielding grasses are known of which ten belong to the genus 

 Lymbopogon, (formerly often included under Andropogon) one 

 species of Vetiveria and one species of Andropogon, only four 

 kinds however are worked commercially. 



Cymbopogon Sckwnanthus. The Camel hay is an Arabian species 

 tormerly used by the Romans and Greeks for flavouring wine, and 

 in medecine, and it has been found mixed with other plants laid as 

 offerings in the form of funeral wreaths on the Sarcophagi of the 

 Jijgs of Thebes, entombed between 1200 and 1000 B.C. A 

 "™e of its oil appears to be made in the Punjab, but it has been 

 Suite neglected in commerce for several centuries. 

 . £ Iwarancusa, is a native of Northern India, and nothing much 

 t t known of its use except medicinally being used by natives of 

 tnat Part in fever, hence its name Jwara-ancusa, lit. fever restramer. 



Cymbopogon Nardus is the well known Citronella grass, which 

 ' s a native of Ceylon, and appears to have been known by the end 

 °J th e sixteenth century, being cultivated near Colombo. Later 



nters confused it with Lemon-grass and Malabar-grass, but the 

 i T 1 *? has been unravelled. It is first mentioned as cultivated 

 D J; e . M ^lay Peninsula in Penang in 1872, by GLADSTONE in a 

 eXV n ! he J° urnal of the Chemical Society. In Java »t appears 

 as h °, have been introduced in 189 1, but this may be doubted 

 cJ5 plant is well known to all the Malay races, under the name ot 

 for ' angi - h is however only used medicinally, being too strong 



eating or flavouring purposes, for which Lemon-grass is used. 

 lenarl kinds ° f Citronella grass are known, vis: Maha Pengiri and 

 Plant ° r Lana Ba tu Pengiri. The former is apparently the 

 V 1 S row n here. It is described as a surface feeder which soon 



