is name are imported into this country the dried
foliaceous tops of a strongly odoriferous labiate plant, growing three
feet high in India and China, called in Bengalee and Hindu, _pucha
pat_. About 46 cases, of from 50 to 110 lbs. each, were imported from
China, by the way of New York, in 1844. The price asked was 6s. per
pound. Very little is known of the plant yielding it. Mr. George
Porter, late of the island of Pinang, stated that it grows wild there
and on the opposite shores of the Malay peninsula. Dr. Wallich says,
that it obviously belongs to the family Labiatae. Viney, in the "French
Journal of Pharmacy," suggests that it is the _Plectranthus
graveolens_ of R. Brown. It forms a shrub of two or three feet in
height. It is the _Pogostemon patchouly_. The odor of the dried plant
is strong and peculiar, and to some persons not agreeable. The dried
tops imported into England are a foot or more in length. In India it
is used as an ingredient in tobacco for smoking, and for scenting the
hair of women. In Europe it is principally used for perfumery
purposes, it being a favorite with the French, who import it largely
from Bourbon. The Arabs use and export it more than any other nation.
Their annual pilgrimship takes up an immense quantity of the leaf.
They use it principally for stuffing mattrasses and pillows, and
assert that it is very efficacious in preventing contagion and
prolonging life. It requires no sort of preparation, being simply
gathered and dried in the sun; too much drying, however, is hurtful,
inasmuch as it renders the leaf liable to crumble to dust in packing
and stowing on board. The characteristic smell of Chinese or Indian
ink is owing to an admixture of this plant in its manufacture. M. de
Hugel found the plant growing wild near Canton. By distillation it
yields a volatile oil, on which the odor and remarkable properties
depend. This oil is in common use in India for imparting the peculiar
fragrance of the leaf to clothes among the superior classes of
natives. The origin of its use is this:--A few years ago, real Indian
shawls bore an extravagant price, and purchasers could always
distinguish them by their odor; in fact, they were perfumed with
Patchouly; the French manufacturers at length discovered this secret,
and used to import the plant to perfume articles of their make, and
thus palm off homespun shawls as real India! Some people put the dry
leaves in a muslin bag, and thus use it as we do la