MATERIA MEDICA OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE. 231 
long. It flowers in the 4th month. The flowers are yellow, 
green and red, resembling those of buck-wheat. The stem 
is like a bamboo, of a green and purple colour. The root 
is taken up in the 2nd and 8th months and, the black skin 
which covers it being taken off, it is cut in slices and dried 
by fire. The ¢a huang from Shu is flattened like the 
tongue of an ox and is therefore called 4+ FF K PE niu she 
(ox tongue) ta huang. There is a sort of ta huang produced 
in Kiang and Huai [Kiang su and An hui, App. 124, 89] 
which is called $+ KK 7& t‘u (native) ta huang. It flowers 
in the 2nd month and produces small fruits. 
Sune K4% [11th cent.], in his description of I chou 
{Sz ch‘uan, App. 102], states that the fa huang grows 
abundantly in the high mountains of Shu. 1t has a red 
stem and large leaves. The root is so large that in the drug 
markets they use it as a pillow. The interior is beautifully 
veined with purple or brown. 
In the days of Lr Sui-cxen the best ta huang was 
brought from Chuang lang [in Kan su, App. 27], and the 
author observes that this agrees with the localities noticed 
in the Pie lu as producing this drag. 
Ta huang is still the common name in China for 
Rhubarb. The drawing of the plant in the Ch. [XXIV, i] 
is rude and incorrect. Of the species of Rhewm which 
furnish this Chinese drug two are known to our botanists. 
Seeds of the true Rhubarb plant, procured from China by 
way of Kiakhta, were first received in St. Petersburg, in 
1750, and distributed by the Russian government to the 
Horticular Societies of England, Scotland and Germany, 
and from that time the plant was much cultivated in Europe. 
Linnzvs named it Rheum palmatum. It was for a long 
time doubted whether this was really the genuine Rhubarb, 
till the late General [then Captain] PrzewaLsky, in 1872, 
