ON  OTTO   OF  ROSE. 
337 
Spooner,  Esq.,  Reporter  General,  and  published  by  authority  of 
Government,  I  find  that  Roshe  (or  Rosia}  Oil  was  exported  from 
Bombay  during  the  year  in  question  to  the  extent  of  1922  gal- 
lons. Of  this  enormous  quantity,  541  gallons  were  shipped  to 
England,  and  the  remaining  1381  gallons  to  the  Arabian  Gulf. 
The  Report  does  not  state  to  what  ports  in  the  Arabian  Gulf 
this  quantity  of  Rosh£  Oil  is  shipped ;  but  as  none  is  reported 
as  shipped  to  Aden  or  Suez  (for  which  places,  as  for  the  United 
Kingdom  or  France,  there  are  special  returns,)  it  is  plain  that 
it  is  shipped  to  other  ports  than  these. 
Now,  although  there  are  several  other  ports  in  the  Arabian 
Gulf,  it  is  Jeddah  the  port  of  Mecca  that  stands  foremost  in  im- 
portance. To  quote  a  competent  authority  "  From  its  posi- 
tion, it  is  the  entrepot  of  all  goods  coming  from  India  and 
Egypt.  The  merchants  of  Gosseir,  Yambo,  Hodeyda,  and 
Massowah,  draw  their  supplies  from  it."  According  to  Burton, 
the  value  of  the  import  trade  of  Jeddah  with  India  amounts  to 
about  25  lacs  of  rupees  (£250,000)  annually.f 
Coupling  these  facts  with  the  testimony  of  the  Turks,  that 
the  volatile  oil  called  Idris  Yaghi  is  imported  from  Mecca,  and 
still  more  with  M.  Guibourt's  information  that  it  is  brought  from 
India,  I  think  there  is  good  circumstantial  evidence  for  identi- 
fying it  with  the  Roshe  Oil  that  is  exported  from  Bombay ;  and 
when  we  consider  the  immense  influx  of  pilgrims  every  year  to 
Jeddah,  the  transport  of  the  drug  northward  to  Egypt  and 
Turkey  is  easily  explained. 
Although  I  have  thus  demonstrated  (as  I  think)  the  identity 
of  the  Turkish  Idris  Yaghi  with  the  Roshe  Oil  of  Bombay,  and 
therefore  proved  them  the  produce  of  one  or  more  species  of 
Andropogon,  growing  in  India,  it  may  be  proper  that  I  should 
briefly  state  other  reasons  for  considering  that  this  volatile  oil 
has  no  claim  to  the  name  often  given  to  it  of  Essence  of 
Geranium.  I  may  say,  then,  that  it  differs  from  true  essential 
Oil  of  Geranium,  such  as  is  distilled  from  a  variety  of  Pelargo- 
nium Radula  Ait.  in  the  South  of  France. 
1.  In  odor. 
2.  In  optical  properties—in  having  (according  to  the  observa- 
tions of  my  friend  Dr.  De  Vry)  no  rotatory  power  when  examined 
*  R.  Innes,  Esq.,  or  Cairo,  quoted  in  Parkyn's  Life  in  Abyssynia,  vol.  i.  p.  402. 
f  Pilgrimage  in  El-Medinab  and  Meocah,  vol.  iii.  p.  379. 
