548 Sino-Iranica 



and Turkish, likewise into Russian as reven' and into Serbian as reved. 

 It is assumed also that Greek frrjov (from *rewon) and pa. are derived from 

 Iranian, and it is more than likely that Iran furnished the rhubarb 

 known to the ancients. The two Greek names first appear in Dios- 

 corides, 1 who states that the plant grows in the regions beyond the 

 Bosporus, for which reason it was subsequently styled rha ponticum 

 or rha barbarum (hence our rhubarb, Spanish ruibarbo, Italian rabarbaro, 

 French rhubarbe), — an interesting case analogous to that of the Hu 

 plants of the Chinese. In the fourth century, Ammianus Marcellinus 2 

 states that the plant receives its name from the River Rha ('Pa, Finnish 

 Rau, Rawa), on the banks of which it grows. This is the Volga, but the 

 plant does not occur there. It is clear that Ammianus' opinion is 

 erroneous, being merely elicited by the homophony of the names of 

 the plant and the river. Pliny 3 describes a root termed rhacoma, which 

 when pounded yields a color like that of wine but inclining to saffron, 

 and which was brought from beyond the Pontus. Certain it is that 

 this drug represents some species of Rheum, in my opinion identical 

 with that of Iran. 4 There is no reason to speculate, as has been done by 

 some authors, that the rhubarb of the ancients came from China; for 

 the Chinese did not know rhubarb, as formerly assumed, from time 

 immemorial. This is shown at the outset by the composite name ta 

 hwan 3s. if ("the great yellow one") or hwan liah lit Ji("the yellow 

 good one"), merely descriptive attributes, while for all genuinely ancient 

 plants there is a root-word of a single syllable. The alleged mention of 

 rhubarb in the Pen kin or Pen ts x ao, attributed to the mythical Emperor 

 Sen-nun, proves nothing; that work is entirely spurious, and the text 

 in which we have it at present is a reconstruction based on quotations 

 in the preserved Pen-ts'ao literature, and teems with interpolations and 

 anachronisms. 6 All that is certain is that rhubarb was known to the 



Hemsley, Journal Linnean Soc, Vol. XXVI, p. 355. There is accordingly no rea- 

 son to seek for an outside origin of the Iranian word (cf. Schrader, Reallexikon, 

 p. 685). The Iranian word originally designated an indigenous Iranian species, 

 and was applied to Rheum officinale and palmatum from the tenth century onward, 

 when the roots of these species were imported from China. 



1 in, 2. Theophrastus is not acquainted with this genus. 



J XXII. vin, 28. 



* xxvii, 105. 



4 Fltjckiger and Hanbury (Pharmacographia, p. 493) state, "Whether pro- 

 duced in the regions of the Euxine (Pontus), or merely received thence from remoter 

 countries, is a question that cannot be solved." The authors are not acquainted 

 with the Iranian species, and their scepticism is not justified. 



6 It is suspicious that, according to Wu P'u of the third century, Sen Nun and 

 Lei Kuh ascribed poisonous properties to ta hwan, while this in fact is not true. 

 The Pen kin (according to others, the Pie lu) states that it is non-poisonous. 



