66% ORD. XL. Oleracee. 
RHEUM PALMATUM. ‘OFFICINAL RHUBARB. 
ceili tpuibgciimibisegbin spec scacieas ae 
SYNONYMA. Rhabarbarum. Pharm. Lond. & Edin. Rhabarbarum 
vyerum Med, Hope, 1. inf. cit. Rheum palmatum; fol. palmatis 
acuminatis. Lin. Spec. Plant. p. 281. Conf. cel. Hope descrip- 
tionem in Act. Philosoph. Londin. vol. 55. c. 1. Linnea. jun. 
in Pl. rarior. hort. Upsal. fasc. 1. item cl, Sandemani in Diss. de 
Rheo palmato; et Milleri in eyus Ilusir. Syst. Sex. 
Class Enneandria. Ord. Trigynia. Lin. Gen. Plant. 506, 
Ess. Gen. Ch. Cal.0, Cor. 6-fida, persistens. Sem. 1, triquetrum. 
Sp. Ch. R. foliis palmatis acuminatis scabriusculis: sinu baseos. 
dilatato, petiolis supra obsolete sulcatis margine rotundatis. 
Aiton. Hort. Kew. 
THE root is perennial, thick, of an oval shape, and sends off 
long tapering branches; externally it is brown, and internally of 
a deep yellow colour: the stalk is erect, round, hollow, jointed, 
sheathed, slightly scored, branched towards the top, and rises to 
the height of six or eight feet: the radical leaves are numerous, 
large, rough, of a roundish-figure, and deeply cut inte lobes, and 
irregularly pointed segments, and stand upon long smooth round 
footstalks: the leaves which proceed from the stalk are placed at 
the joints, which they supply with membranous sheathes, and are 
successively smaller towards the upper part of the stem: the flowers 
terminate the branches, which they surround in numerous clusters 
forming a kind of spike, and appear in April and May: the corolla 
divides into six obtuse segments, which are of a greenish white 
colour, and alternately smaller: the calyx is wanting: the filaments 
are nine, slender, about the length of the corolla, and furnished — 
with oblong double anthera: the style is very short, and ter- 
