RHEUM.

815

(G "v.

mbourt, Hist, des Drop. t. i. p. 569). These are cultivated at Rheum-b/ e > a place not far from Lorient , in the department of Morbihan.of n lni l )£ d ma tum is no longer cultivated there. Through the kindness^ Professor Guibourt, I possess two kinds of French rhubarb. One of*e he calls flat, and is probably the produce of R. rhaponticum; thehe terms round , and is the produce of R. compactum.

^ kitice the preceding remarks were set up in type, Mr. Anderson, of the>thecaries’ Botanic Garden, Chelsea, has kindly furnished me with thes h roots of thirteen species of Rheum : viz. R. palmatum, undulatum,hu^ c ^ um ’ Rhaponticum, Emodi, crassinervium, caspicum, tataricum,f Jr idurn, confluens, Fischeri, bardanifolium, and bullatum. Havingvj. e hdly dried these by artificial heat, I found that one species only,l ' R. palmatum, closely resembled Asiatic rhubarb in the combined

Pies of odour, colour, and marbling: R. undulatum agreed tolerably

lUal

^ in colour and marbling, but not in odour. It deserves, however, tof 0 ^liced that the specimens examined were of unequal ages,—some^'ining the rootstock, others rootbranehes of the respective plants,—l^fipumstance which considerably diminishes the value of a corn-ea) ^ lVe examination of them. Furthermore, all the samples were pro-v' injured by the wet season. The rootbranehes of R. crassinerviuma strong plant of six or seven years old, but which has not flowered)jj resemble Asiatic rhubarb in either colour or odour. Dr. Royle^ *nndly supplied me with the dried roots of R. Webbianum, the samePf l0s e referred to in the experiments of Mr. Twining [Trans. Med. andSoc. of Calcutta , vol. iii. p. 441). They are short, transverse seg-^ Il '- S of the rootbranehes, of a dark brownish colour, odourless or nearlyf f( j " ith a very bitter and astringent taste, and do not essentially differI* 1 the roots described at p. 814 as Himalayan rhubarb.

^ °Mmerce; —In 1831, the quantity of rhubarb imported from RussiaCi 0,901 lbs - i from the East Indies, 133,462 lbs. [Pari Ret. No. 550,b e -33). The quantities of rhubarb on which duty (Is. per lb.) has11 Paid during the last four years, is as follows [Trade List ):—

East Indian.

Foreign.

In 1835.

lbs.

lbs.

32,515

10.647

1836.

36,836

7,752

1837.

44,669

5,946

1838.

37,026

7,402

n

v ^omposition. —The most important analyses of rhubarb are those ofdeader (Pfaff’s Mat. Med. Bd. iii. S. 39), N. E. Henry [Bull, de\^ nn - vi. 87), Braude [Quart. Journ. of Science, vol. x. p. 288), Ilome-tjy 1111 ificrl. Jahrb. Bd. xxiii. S. 252, 1822), Peretti [Journ. de Pharm.S,: 536), Buchner and Herberger [Pharm. Central-Blatt fur 1831,Lucae [Ibid, fur 1834, S. 78), O. Henry [Journ. de Pharm.'■ 162), and Brandes [Pharm. Central-Blatt far 1836, p. 482).