684 A N D R O 
many-flowered, ciliate; awns contorted, hairy. Found 
by Thunberg on the mountains of Nagafaki in Japan; 
flowering in September. 
9. Andropogon ferratum :• panicle loofe; one flofcule 
feflile, villofe at the bafe ; the other pedicelled, with the 
pedicel villofe, and (horter than the calyx. 10. Andro- 
pogoii cotuliferum: panicle fpreading, villofe; awn twift- 
ed, naked ; pedicels clubbed or fwelling at top, and hol¬ 
lowed like a laucer or difli. Natives of Japan. 
11. Andropogon cymbarium : panicle fcattered ; bradtes 
boat-form.; flowers tranfverfe, awned, three-feld. A na¬ 
tive of the Eafl Indies. 
12. Andropogon fquarrofum : panicle crowded, glumes 
awl -’fit aped 1 , rugged. Koenig-obferved it in Ceylon, fwim- 
ming on deep pools. It is ufed by the natives for its plea- 
fant fmell: they alfo make fans of it. 
13. Andropogon proftratum : peduncles in five-flowered 
umbels without calyxes, the hermaphrodite flofcule awned. 
A native of the F.alt Indies. 
14. Andropogon faftigiatum : fpikes of the panicle fo- 
litary, peduncles elongate fubfaftigiate, rachis woolly, flof- 
cules awned, male fertile. Native of Jamaica. , 
i\. Andropogon alopecuroides : panicle loofe, rachis 
woolly, a twilled awn to each flofcule. A native of Ja¬ 
maica and Virginia. 
16. Andropogon diftachyum: fpikes two, terminal: 
culm undivided. This fpecies is above a foot high, with 
flat leaves and folitary flowers. Linnaeus fays, from Bur- 
fer, that it grows wild in Switzerland. Scheucher had it 
from Smyrna. 
17. Andropogon fchaenanthus, or fweet rulh, or camel’s 
hay : fpike of the panicle conjugate, ovate-oblong; rachis 
pubefcent, ftofcules feflile with a twilled awn. Native of 
Arabia and India. Cultivated in the gardens of China and 
Cochinchina, where the inhabitants ufe it to feafon their 
meat. This is brought over from Turkey in bundles, a- 
bout a foot long. When in perfection, it has an agreeable 
fmell, with a warm, bitterilh, not unpleafant, talle. It 
was formerly employed as a warm flomachic and deob- 
llruent ; but, in this country, more common aromatic ve¬ 
getables have now fuperfeded its ufe. Perennial. 
18. Andropogon virginicum : fpikes of the panicle con¬ 
jugate, peduncles Ample, rachis woolly, flofcules awnlels, 
the male one waiting. A native of America. 
19. Andropogon bicorne : fpikes of the panicle conju¬ 
gate, peduncles branching very much, rachis woolly, awn 
caducous, male flofcule wanting. Native of the Eall In¬ 
dies, on dry hills, and there called by the Englilli fox-tail 
grafs. 
20. Andropogon hirtum : fpikes of the panicle conju¬ 
gate, calyxes fhaggy. A native of Portugal, Italy, Sicily, 
and Smyrna. 
21. Andropogon infulare : panicle loofe, fmooth ; flof¬ 
cules double, avvnlefs; one pedicel Ihorter, calyxes woolly. 
A native of Jamaica. 
22. Andropogon barbatum : fpikes digitate, calyxes per¬ 
manent, corollas ciliate. A native of the Eafl Indies. 
23. Andropogon pubefcens : fpikes digitate, calyxes 
fybtriflorous, outer petals awned ; keel and edge of the her¬ 
maphrodite flower ciliate. This is a native of Jamaica, 
from whence it was lent by Mr. Gilbert Alexander. It 
was introduced at Kew, in 1779; and flowers from July 
to September. It is perennial. 
24. Andropogon nardus: branches of the panicle fuper- 
decompound, proliferous. Indian nard, or fpikenard, as 
brought to 11s, is a congeries of final 1 tough reddifh-brown 
fibres, forming a bunch about the fize of a finger. It was 
kept in the fh'bps only as an article in mithridate and theriaca , 
and is faid to be ufed among the orientals as a fpice. it 
is moderately warm and pungent, accompanied with a fla¬ 
vour not difagreeable. There is an account of the true 
Nardus Indica, in the Philofophical Tran factions, by Dr. 
Plane. It was difcovered in India by his brother, in De¬ 
cember 1786, after eroding the-river Rap.ty,.about twen¬ 
ty milps from the foot of tire northern mountains; where, 
P O G O N. 
perceiving the air to be perfumed by an aromatic fmell., 
and afleing the caufe, he was told that it proceeded from 
the roots of the grafs trodden out of the ground by the 
elephants and horfes. The country was wild and uncul¬ 
tivated, and this was the common grafs which covered 
the furface of it, growing in large tufts clofe to each o- 
ther, very rank, and in general from three to four feet in 
length. Tranfplanted into a garden at Lucknow,' it throve 
exceedingly, and in the rainy feafon fhot up fpikes about 
fix feet high. The whole plant has a ftrong aromatic o- 
dour; but both the fmell and the virtues refine principally 
in the hulky roots, or lower parts of the flalks, which in 
chewing have a bitter, warm, pungent, tafte, accompanied 
with fome degree of that kind of glow in the mouth which 
cardamoms occafion. It is remarkable, that the circum- 
ftance of the difeovery correfponds, in a ftriking manner, 
with an occurrence related by Arrian : that, during the 
march of Alexander the Great through the deferts of Ga- 
drofia, the air was perfumed by the fpikenard, which was 
trampled under foot by the army ; and that the Phoeni¬ 
cians colledted large quantities of it, as well as of myrrh, 
in order to carry them into their own country, as articles 
of merchandife. Gadrofia, or Gedrofia, anfwers to the 
modern Mackran, or Kedge-Mackran, a maritime pro¬ 
vince of Perfia, fituated between Kerman (the ancient 
Carmania) and the river Indus, being of courfe the fron¬ 
tier of Perfia towards India ; and this defert lies in the 
middle of the traft of country between the river Indus and 
the Perfian gulph, and within a few days march of the 
Arabian or Erythrtean fea ; which is the northern part of 
the Ethiopic ocean, and not the Red Sea. It fhould feem 
that the nard was found towards the eaftern part of it; for 
Alexander was then dire6ting his route to the weflward, 
and the length of march through the defert afterwards 
was very great. Garcias ah Horto, a Portuguefe, who 
refided many years at Goa in the fixteenth century, has 
given a figure of the roots, or rather the lower part of 
the flalks, which correfponds with Dr. Blane’s fpecimens ■, 
he fays, that there is but one fpecies of nardus known in 
India, either for the confumption of the natives, or for 
exportation to Perfia and Arabia. It is remarkable, that 
he is perhaps the only author who fpeaks of it in its re¬ 
cent flate from his own obfervation. Rumphius mentions 
having feen a dried fpecimen, of which the leaves were al» 
mod five feet long ; and that Mackran was one of the 
countries from whence it was brought. It is probable that 
the nardus of Pliny, and great part of what is now im¬ 
ported from the Levant, and found under that name in 
tlie fhops, is a plant growing in the countries on the Eu¬ 
phrates, or in Syria, where the great emporiums of the 
eaftern and weftern commerce were fituated. There is a 
Nardus Affyria mentioned by Horace; and Diofcorides 
fpeaks of the Nardus Syriaca as different from the Indica, 
which certainly was brought from fome of the remote parts 
of India ; for both Diofcorides and Galen, by way of fix¬ 
ing more precifely the country from whence it comes, call 
it alfo Nardus Gangites. It is called by the natives terankus, 
which means literally, in the Hindoo language, fever-re - 
ftrainer, from the virtues they attribute to it in that difeafe. 
They infufe about a drachm of it in half a pint of hot wa¬ 
ter, with a fmall quantity of black pepper. This ifuiion 
ferves for one dofe, and is repeated three times a day. It 
is efteemed a powerful medicine in all kinds of fevers, 
whether continued or intermittent. It was highly valued 
anciently as an article of luxury as well as medicine. The 
favourite perfume which was ufed at the ancient baths 
and feafts was the v.ngucntum nardinum ; and it appears, 
from a paflage in Horace, that it was fo valuable, that as 
much of it as could be contained in a fmall box of precious 
ftone, was confidered as a fort of equivalent fora large vef- 
fel of wine, and a handforne quota for a gueft to contribute 
at an entertainment, according to the cuftom of antiquity. 
It may here be remarked, that as its feniible qualities do 
not depend on a principle fo volatile as effential oil, like 
moft other aromatic vegetables, litis would be a great re- 
3 commendation 
