LABIATE 251
Its introduction into Europe is accounted for by a writer in the
Gardener's Chronicle
l
by the fact that a few years previously real Indian
shawls bore an extravagant price, and purchasers could always distin-
guish them by their odour of patchouli. The French manufacturers,
having discovered the secret of the odour, imported the dried leaves to
perfume articles of their own make, and thus palm off their homespun
shawls for real Indian.
The true patchouli plant was first described and illustrated in 1845
by Dr. 'Pelletier-Sautelet, in the Mem. de la Soc. Boy. des Sciences
d'Orleans, torn, v., No. 6, the plant having flowered at Orleans in
February of that year, and the description and figure of the plant were
copied into the Pharmaceutical Journal.
2
In the spring of 1849 the
plant flowered at Kew, and another illustration of the plant, but not
quite so characteristic, was published in Hooker's Journal of Botany*
The obtuse character of the apex of the leaf, and the crenato-lobate
margins of the leaf, with the base wedge-shaped and not toothed, are
well shown in both.
The plant was supposed by Dr. Pelletier-Sautelet to be hitherto un-
described, in consequence of its not having previously been seen in
flower, and he named it Pogostemon patchouli. Its native country re-
mained unknown until March, 1896, when Holmes was able to identify
it as a wild plant of the Philippine Islands, which had been described
by Blanco under the name of Mentha cablin in the Flore de Filipinos
in 1837. This botanical source explains why the plant was known to
the Chinese, and why the first importation into this country may have
gone to New York from China. One of the uses of the plant appears
to be to give its characteristic odour to Chinese and Indian ink.
The true patchouli is known in the Straits Settlements as Tilam
wangi or Dhelum wangi (" sweet patchouli"). A wild patchouli, known
as Tilam outan, is sometimes added to the genuine patchouli on distilla-
tion, but its botanical origin is uncertain.
The oil distilled from Java patchouli leaves has for some years past
been a commercial article, and is usually known as Dilem oil, in order
to distinguish it from the oil from Pogostemon patchouli. Java pat-
chouli is clearly recognised as Pogostemon Heyneanus, a species distinct
from the true Pogostemon patchouli, and the following notes by E. M.
Holmes
4
are sufficient to clear up any difficulties resulting from the con-
fusion existing between the various names employed prior to 1896 :—
The typical form of this species has long been cultivated in gardens
in India, from the Concan southwards to Coimbatore, under the name
of patchouli, and was referred to Pogostemon Heyneanus by botanists,
but when, in 1843, the origin of the non-flowering cultivated patchouli
of the Straits Settlements was shown to be a different plant, and re-
ceived the name of Pogostemon patchouli Pellet., the authors of the
Flora of British India considered that in consequence of the similarity
of odour, the Indian plant Pogostemon Heyneanus Wall, must belong to
the same species, and altered its name to Pogostemon patchouli Dalz.
and Gibbs, and that of the Straits Settlements non-flowering plant into-
Pogostemon patchouli, var. suavis, hence the Pogostemon Heyneanus be-
came known in botanic gardens as Pogostemon patchouli Dalz. and
(^1) 1849, 645. (^2 1849) (1), viii. 574. » 1849, 329, pi. xi.
4P. and E.O.R. (1913), 418.