POLYGON AGEM 153 



RHEUM ^ALMATUyi.Linn. 



Fig, — Bentl. and Trim,^ t 214. Hhubarb (Eng,), Rhu- 

 barbe {F/\). 



Hab. — Soutb-Eastern Tibet, Cbina. Tbe root. 

 Vernacular. — Rewand-cbini,Lakn-re\vaiid-cbini(Z»/^.^asa;'5). 



History, Uses, &C* — The Cbinese appear to have been 

 acquainted witb tbe properties of rbubarb from a period long 

 anterior to tbe Christian era, for tbe drug is treated of in tbe 

 herbal called Pen-Idng^ which is attributed to the Emi^eror 



Shen-nung, the father of Chinese agriculture and medicine, who 

 reiG^ned about 2700 B.C. The drug: is named there 



o 



S. 



yellow, excellent, and Ta-huangy the great yellow. The latter 

 name also occurs in the great Geography of China, where it is 

 stated that rhubarb was a tribute of the province Si-ning-fu, 

 eastward of Lake Kuku Nor, from about the 7th to the 10th 

 centuries of our era. 



As regards "Western Asia and Europe, we find a root called 

 pa or pTjov, mentioned by Dioscorides as brought from beyond 

 the Bosphorus. Pliny describes a root termed Rhacoma^ which, 

 when pounded, yielded a colour like that of wine, but inclining 

 to saffron, and was brought from beyond Pontus. The drug 

 thus described is usually regarded as rhubarb, or at least as the 

 root of some species of Rheum. Lassen has shown that trading 

 caravans from Shensi in Northern China arrived at Bokhara as 

 early as the year 114 B.C. {PharmacograpJda.) 



Riwas (the plant Ri in the Zend language) was known to the 

 ancient Persians, and the same name is still applied to a species 

 of Hheum in the province of Grilan in Persia. Aitcbison found 

 R, BibeSy Gronov., on the Paropamisus range, to be known to 

 the peasantry as Rewash, Rewand and Chukri; he states that 

 the flowering branches are eaten, and the root used in colouring 

 leather- In tbe llari-rud Valley he found R. tataricum, Linn. , f ., 

 to be known as Rewash-i-dewana, ** fools' rhubarb/' the 

 fruit and root being used as a purgative. Ibn^Sina (978) 



111,-20 



