130 
grows out of the ground and gets exhausted dying off after io or 
15 years' cultivation, the leaves are somewhat broad and the bushes 
formed are lavger than that of the Lena batu. 
The oil is finer containing 50‘45 percent, of citronella and 38' 15 
of geraniol as against 28*2 of citronella and 32*9 of geraniol in 
Lena batu. The latter however requires replanting less frequently 
and so is said to be replacing the former. 
C. confert Morns is a native of Ceylon which is said to produce 
a good oil, but it does not appear to have ever been used 
commercially. 
C.flexuosus is a Malabar species which produces the Malabar 
grass oil or Malabar Lemon-grass oil. It is distilled and exported 
under the name of Lemon-grass oil but it is not to be confused with 
the real oil of that name. 
C, coloratus is a smaller plant from Southern India of which little 
is known. It is very aromatic but does not appear to be distilled. 
C. citratus. — The Lemon- grass. The origin of this plant seems 
very obscure. It appears to have been first described in 1631 in 
Java by BontiuS and 1635 in the Philippines by Mereinberg, a 
Spanish Jesuit. Since that time it has been carried all over the 
world. 
It appears in India in 1695, in Africa and America about the 
beginning of last century. Its value in medicine and its invariable 
use in Malay curries, no doubt caused its transportation all over 
the Archipelago and to other countries where the Portuguese who 
highly appreciated it, made their colonies. It is interesting his- 
torically to find that Queen CHARLOTTE was very partial to 
Lemon-grass tea, the plant being grown at Kew. She frequently 
treated Dr. Maton her physicion to a dish of Letnon-grass tea 
from the Kew plants. 
No one seems ever to have seen the plant wild, so that its 
original home is quite unknown. The plant very rarely flowers. 
I have never seen or heard of flowers here, but they have occasionally 
been met with elsewhere. It is known here as Sereh Makan, to 
distinguish it from Citronella Sereh Wangi. 
C. Martini is an Indian species producing the Rusa oil or 
Geranium-oil, an oil in much demand. The production amounts 
to 44,0^0 lbs,, chiefly produced in Khandeish and Rajputana. 
C. coesius , Kamakshi grass replaces this last in the Carnatic. 
Its oil seems to be locally used, but has never been made 
commercially. 
C. polyneuros known as Delft grass, is found in the Nflghiris and 
Ceylon. Its oil seems never to have been made commercially. 
The Vetiver, Vetiveria odorata to which the new name of V. 
zizanioides is given, is well enough known. It is a native of most 
of India and Ceylon and turns up in the Malay region occasionally 
in gardens. The roots when damp exhale a pleasant scent. The 
oil is seldom if ever extracted 
