APPENDIX II. 



33 « 



Linnaeus has diflinguiflied the different fpecies of ^^^o^Rhul'" 

 rhubarb by the names Rheum Palmatum, R.Rhaphonti- 

 cum, * R. Rhabarbarum, R. Compadtum, and R. Ribes. 



Botanifts have long differed in their opinions, which 

 of thefe feveral fpecies is the true rhubarb ; and that 

 queftion does not appear to be as yet fatisfadlorily cleared 

 up. However, according to the notion which is moft 

 generally received, it is fuppofed to be the Rheum t Pal- j^i,''™ ^'^' 

 matum ; the feeds of which were originally procured 

 from a Bucharian merchant, and diftributed to the prin- 

 cipal botanifts of Europe. Hence this plant has been 

 cultivated with great fuccefs ; and is now very common 

 in all our botanical gardens. The learned dodlor I Hope, 

 profeffor of medicine and botany in the univerfity of 

 Edinburgh, having made trials of the powder of this root, 

 in the fame dofes in which the foreign rhubarb is given, 

 found no difference in its effedls ; and from thence con- 

 clufions have been drawn with great appearance of pro- 



* See Murray's edition of Linnaeus Syftema Vegetab. Gott. 1774. 

 In the former editions of Linnseus Rheum Rhabarbarum is called R. 

 Undulatum. 



-\- Mr. Pallas (to whom I am chiefly indebted for this account of the 

 Tartarian and Siberian Rhubarb) affured me, that he never found the 

 R. Palmatum in any part of Siberia. 



X Phil. Tranf. for 1765, p. 290. 



I bability. 



