Search the Dictionary

A very large and important genus of grasses, found in nearly all parts of the world. It includes the lemon grass of Ceylon and the beard grass, or broom sedge, of the United States. The principal subgenus is Sorghum, including A. sorghum and A. halepensis, from which have been derived the Chinese sugar cane, the Johns…

One of the cultivated forms of Andropogon Halepensis (syn. Sorghum Halepense). See Andropogon, below.

Chaucer. Beard grass (Bot.), a coarse, perennial grass of different species of the genus Andropogon. -- To one's beard, to one's face; in open defiance.

ree which bears lemons; the lemon tree. Lemon grass (Bot.), a fragrant East Indian grass (Andropogon Shoenanthus, and perhaps other allied species), which yields the grass oil used in perfumery. -- Lemon sole (Zoöl.), a yellow European sole (Solea aurantiaca). -- Salts of lemon (Chem.), a white crystalline substance,…

the flowers grow in dense spikes. -- Sweet rush, a sweet-scented grass of Arabia, etc. (Andropogon schoenanthus), used in Oriental medical practice. -- Wood rush, any plant of the genus Luzula, which differs in some technical characters from Juncus.

An East Indian grass (Andropogon muricatus); also, its fragrant roots which are much used for making mats and screens. Also called kuskus, and khuskhus. [Sometimes written vetivert, and vitivert.]