U3 
distilled oil, is more fully entitled to the commendations 
the sweet cane has received, and to have been sought 
for as an article of commerce from distant countries, than 
any other substance with which I am acquainted, the attr 
of roses hardly excepted. Of this any one may be con- 
vinced, by examining the specimen of this essence, which 
I have placed in the Museum of Materia Medica. I 
know not whether it be an accidental circumstance that 
the aromatic species of Andropogon, common in North- 
western India, instead of having a simple name like most 
other substances, is always designated by a compound 
term, mirchia-gund and gund-bel ; so, in Hebrew, kaneh- 
bosem; in Greek, xahafto; tvo^oi ; which I suppose to be 
Andropogon Calamus Aromaticus, nob. That a grass 
similar to the fragrant Andropogon, or at least one growing 
in the same kind of soil and climate, was employed by the 
ancients, we have the assurance, in the Phoenicians who 
accompanied Alexander in his march across the arid country 
of Gedrosia, having recognized and loaded their- cattle 
with it, as one of the perfumes of commerce. It is in a 
similar country, that is, the arid plains of Central India, 
that the Andropogon Calamus Aromaticus, nob., is found, 
and where the fragrant essential oil is distilled from its 
leaves, culms, and roots. In consequence of Arrian using the 
word nard, Mr. Hatchett, who also considers this oil to be 
the precious ointment of Scripture, was led to suppose the 
plant to be the nardos of the Greeks ; but it is not possible 
that this, so fully described by Dioscorides, can grow in the 
deserts of Kerman ; as all the species are found only on 
the mountains of Europe, or on those of India, round which, 
according to Dioscorides, the Ganges flows, (v. p. 33.) 
The Lign-aloe (Hebr. ahalini) I bebeve to be the Agallo- 
chum or Eagle-wood, mentioned at p. 88. Sir Wm. Jones 
also supposes, that " the fragrant wood called AUuwwa 
