November 2, 1891.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
34S 
(IllASS OILS AND THEIIl VARIETIES. 
Sl'MMABlSED IIY J. ClI. SAWER, 
Of tho Bonus of graaaos belonging to the tribe .Indro- 
fiofiom- iiliout twentv-five species are met with in India; 
of those, four or five arc of commercial interest as 
yielding the oils known as “ grass oils.” 
The greatest confusion has existed in the identi- 
fication of the plants yielding the osaienlial oils from 
this genus, and much uncertainty yet appoap to exist 
in Europe in the assignment of each oil to its proper 
liotanical source — that is to say, in the identification 
of nearly-related plants which afford distinct oils 
known comniercially under various names in London, 
I’aris, and the East. The trade-names in London of 
the four principal oils being known in Egypt, in 
Turkey, and in India under such a gi'eat variety of 
names', and the plants they are derived from being 
known in the various provinces of India under such 
a quantity of local dialaects, it is not surprising that 
errors creep into the literature of a subject so dif- 
ficult as that of the identilioation of the plants which 
yield the four oils known on the London market as 
•• citronolla," “lemon-grass,” “ginger-grass,” and “ve- 
tiver." Had 1 not personally known one of the largest 
growers and distillers at Singapore, who was as well 
versed in the Malay and Indian dialects as ho was in 
the cultivation of the plants, I might have been led 
by text-books to believe in the existence of a great 
number of-plants yieldingvariousoilsunder many names. 
The European and vernacular names are very nu- 
merous, but the oils are four (unless rectified or adul- 
terated oils be counted), and the plants yielding them 
are four muloss a sub-genus, Ci/HiftonpyoH, or varieties 
somewhat modihod by cultivation, he counted). 
There are writers wHio refer back to Liosooridos — 
even to .Ii rcniiah— but those Ancients mixed uji 
many plants under one poetical name, and led us 
Moderns into much contusion and dispute (instance, 
"Hpikenard"). Their writings, in language not over 
rich in botanical terms, are misty and abrupt in ex- 
pressions, and they have been mauled in translation 
and re-translation. To Watt’s “Dictionary of the Eco- 
nomic Plants of India,” published in Calcutta 1889 
— a very valuable work philologically, botauically, and 
commercially — I am principally indebted for the 
vernacular names given in this summary. I only 
quote a few, as a coinplets list would bo too lengthy. 
Thero certainly is great difficulty of expressing 
by any oonibinatioii of the Roman oharaotors or by 
accentuation the guttural pronunciation, peculiar- 
asjiiration, iVro., of Arabic, or of tbo languages and 
dialects of the East ; possibly they might he more 
easily r-ondored in tiorman. 
A museum-specimen of essential oil should be 
distilled by the exiiibitor bimsolf, as all Orioutal 
oils are adulterated ; it should bo accompanied by a 
dried specimen of the plant taken when in flower, 
a samjilo of tbo root, and a drawing of the living 
plant, also a description of the aspect of the place 
whore fouinl, and its exact local name writfen in 
Oriental characters — then, in Londoii, we know it. 
However, to summarise on the evidence at present 
available, tlie commorcial oils derived from the live 
plants are as follows; — 
1. On. OS' Cn-KoNELL.r. — Thi-i is the Aiulrojioi/on liar- 
i/iM of Linnaeus, and is figured in Bentley audTrimons’s 
“ Medicinal Plants,” tab '297. Hynouyms; .{.fli.xiiMiui 
and .1. cij/omfiKf, Neea; J. Tliwaites (“Enoy. 
Ceylon Plants,” 3B1); CiiiitbojjoDOH snerfa,-, Linn. (Phar- 
macoixnia of India). In Kimniors “Koport of the 
Products Exhibited at the 18(12 Exhibion,'^he wrongly 
assigns citronella to .-1. cE/'nlas; and he is wrong 
in his names of three out of four of the grasses. 
Tills grass is very common in tbo plains of the 
Punjab and North-West I'rovinces. It is oxteusivoly 
cultivated in Ceylon and at Singapore tor tbo manu- 
facture of the oil from its leaves, and it is abundant 
at 'Traviincoro. As cultivated in Ceylon on Winter's 
estate near Jalli,* it often attains a height of 0 or 
8 feet. Tlie oil from this estate is considered as fine 
as, j)r_ finer than, that from Biiigapore.t 
* Gallo I — Eu. 7'. ,1. 
t In the London market “Winter’s” oils rank in 
value Homowlial below “ Fisher’s” Singapore oils. — 
En. 0. D. 
44 
In Ceylon the citronolla grass is raised from seed 
and planted like guinea-grass. It yields two or throe 
crops a year. (a) It is distinghiahod from tbo other spe- 
cies by its peculiar reddish tint, short spikes, and 
narrow leaves. The pure oil is thin, almost colour- 
less, or of a pale groenish-yellow, and strongly aro- 
matic. It is to this oil that the well-known odour of 
“honey-soap” is duo. Very interesting details of re- 
cent roaoarchos in the chemistry of citronella are 
detailed by Sir. Dodge,(//) mention being also made of 
Professor Fluokiger’s discovery of the pocnliar pro- 
perty possessed by this oil, and that of -I. cilralm, of 
Bolidifying, with evolution of heat, when shaken for 
ton minutes with a saturated solution of sodium 
bisulphite. It seems probable that the essential oil 
from a given plant may not only vary in density and 
boiling-point according to the age of the oil, but 
according to the age of the plant, the season when 
gathered, and the soil in which it was grown. 
It is well known to the trade that in the East 
citronella is largely adulterated with kerosene, largo 
quantities of whioh are imported in Ceylon, in great 
excess of the requirements for illuminating purposes. 
Samples have been found to contain 18 per cent, of 
this adulterant. Many common fixed oils are also 
used. 
2. On, or Lemon-ohass. — T his is derived from the 
.1. cifi'd/iiv of Do Candolle. Syn., A. scficenanthw, 
Wallicli, Plant. As. Rar. III., t-ib. 280. 
The vernacular names, “ Oaudha-benk ” (Bengal) 
and “ Malntriimkimg-hhustriming ” (Sanskrit), are, by 
Hoxburgiq^c) given to a plant ho dcacrihea as A. scltre- 
Liim. 'This description may he referable to 
.1. eilralus. Do C., but it seems to agree equally 
woU with the -1. lAodijt.r of Desfontaines. 
It is a large, coarse, glauceous grass found under 
cultivation in various islands of the Eastern Arclii- 
jadago, and in gardens over an oxtousive tract of 
country in India. It very rarely flowers, hut Dr. 
Dymook, of Bombay, states tnat he has seen it in flower 
more tliaii once. It is largely cultivated in Ceylon 
and Singapore for the odoriferous oil distilled from 
the loaves, which is called lemon-grass, verbena oil, 
or Indian melissa oil. 
The oil is employed in Europe as an ingredient 
in perfumoa, very considerable quantities being used 
in the manufacture of can do Cologne. It is also used 
for adulterating the so-called “true verbena oil" ob- 
tained from the Liiipia cih-iotlt/ra in Spain. This 
plant is sometimes called .l/oi/.ftu cilricufom, and ft 
IS certainly not a verbena plant at all. Oil of lo- 
mon-grasB is said to ho called A'lVei in Java, but tliat 
word may apply to the oil of 'JWrauIhr.ra cihnln, a 
Javanese plant of similar odour. This "verbona” 
odour is also developed in Kitcaljiplni atauieiiana, 
JCucali/jitua cilriodora, and JiaekhoHiia citriudum, Aus- 
tralian plants, from which oils are distilled. 
3. Vktivkr on Cus-cos. — This is the root of tlm 
ArnlntjtoffOft viuticattLi, Hetz. Syn. A a(jHairaHUft, Linn,; 
Vefira'iti odorata, Virey ; .‘LniMmiin miiriesfnin, Iletz ; 
Uaphia nmncatm, Neea; /'/isMrw s»s«»oin!r», Linn. 
There is a verse in the Sanskrit language composed 
of nine words, arranged in two Une8,(_rf) purporting 
to be the nine names under wliich the plant is known ; 
doubtless they were poetical names, as they are not 
to be found in the extensive list of local names recently 
enumerated by Watts. (c) 
The roots are uiiiversiilly known in Bengal as 
“Chas” or “ Klias-Klias,” audiiiBombay a8“Kliaaa- 
Khasa. ” It is a perennial, tufted grass, very 
conspicuous, tall and erect. It is very common in 
every part of the coast of Coromandel, Mysore, 
also in Bengal and Burma, wlicro it moots 
with a low, moist, rich soil, especially on the banka 
of water-courses. It covers large tracts of waste land 
in Cnttack. It inhabits the plains of the Punjab and 
North-West Provinces, and aacouda into Kumaou. 1,0(K) 
or 2,000 feet in altitude.fy') ft is also found in Manri- 
a Tropical Ai/i'ica/lui-iil, iii. p. 58. 
h Amenrun Jouniatof Oheiiiiatri/t.XI., 1889, No. 7, p. 456. 
c. Ilox. Fhr. hat. Srmmpoiv Kdn., i. p. 278. 
(I Aaiatic Ileacnrcli/ s, iv. p. 306. 
c JHct. Economic J’rotlncfa of India. Calcutta: 1889. 
/' Dutbio’s Uraaaea of the North- Wat Vrovintca. 1883. 
