/ 
;■ 
128 
■tN. 
^^ 
^ 
ecame acquainted 
It was not until the year 1732 that naturalifls b 
with any plant which feemed to afFord the Rhabarbarum Officinale,* 
when fome plants, received from Ruffia by Juffieu at Paris, and Rand 
at Chelfea,^ were faid to fupply this important defideratum, and as fuch 
were adopted by Linnsus, in his firil edition of the Species Plantarum, 
under the name of Rheum Rhabarbarum. This however v/as not very 
generally received as the genuine Rhubarb plant; and with a view to 
afcertain this matter more completely, Kauw Boerhaave procured from 
a Tartarian rhubarb merchant the feeds of thofe plants, v\rhofe roots 
he annually fold, and which were admitted at Peterfborough to be the 
true rhubarb : thefe feeds were foon propagated, and were difcovered 
byDe Gorter to produce two diilind: fpecies, viz. the R. Rhabarbarum 
of Linn^us, Or as it has fmce been called R. undulatum, and ano- 
ther fpecies, 
a fnecimen 
of which was prefented to Linn^sus, who 
declared it to be a new one, and w^as firll mentioned in the fecond 
edition of the Sp. Plantarum in 1762, by the name of R. palmatum, 
(the plant we have figured). Previous to this time, De Gorter had 
repeatedly fent its feeds to Linn^us,*" but the young plants which 
they produced confiantly periilied ; at length he obtained the frefh 
J 
root, 
which , fucceeded very well at Upfal, and 
/T* 
u 
the younger Linnasus to defcrib 
e 
thi 
iS 
plant 
d 
ann. 
rvvards enabled 
1767, But two 
years antecedent to tliis^ Dr. Hope s account of the Rheum palma 
turn, as it grew in 
reptd before the Royal Society at London; and* of the great eftiina- 
the botanic garden near Edinburgh, had been 
tion in which this plant was held by him, we have the follow- 
ing proof: '^ From the perfed; fimilarity of this root with the befl 
foreign rhubarb in tafte, fmell, colour, and purgative qualities, we 
^ * The Rheuui Rhaponticum of Linnseus, or Rhaponticum folio Lapathi majoris 
glabro of C. Bauhin, is generally fuppofed to be the Rhabarbarum of the ancients ; 
^' AlpinuS' al 
iique putant efle P^ vel Fvov veterum, cujus radicem ufurparunt. (Fule 
Diofcond. Mat. Med. lib. 3, cap.. 2.) Ipfe Alpinus fibi circa annum 1610, ftirpem 
ex Thracia procuravit, et base Patavio Venetiam primo, dein inde in Angliam ad 
Parkinfonium (Theat. Bot. p. 157.) pervenit/' Murray Ap. Med. vol. 4, 354. It is 
well known that the ancient rhubarb had not the purgative pov/er of the modern. ' 
y 
^ Seeds of this fpecies were alfo fent to Miller from Boerhaave at Leyden, by the 
title of ^^ Rhabarbarum verum Chinenfe/* See his Gard. Di6t:. 
See the letters between De Gorter and Linnaeus, by Nozeman, in Verhanddingen 
an het Gemotjchap to R.ott€rdamj voL I. p. 455,^^^ cited by Murray,, 
1 
%' 
d 
p'ide Plants rarior, hortt UpfaUfafc^ !• 
cannot 
