[ 4?3 J 



diilatum, may hereafter be found equal, or (as fome tlunk) 

 fuperior to either of the parent plants, muft be left to future 

 obfervation. 



At prefent, the palmatum only demands our attention r 

 If this plant can, by proper attention to its culture, and 

 manner of preparing it, be broug'at at length to rival the 

 foreign rhubarbs, which are annually imported at a very 

 heavy expence, it will certainly become a confiderable ac- 

 quiiition to this country. The Turkey, the Rufilan, and 

 even the Eaft-Indian rhubarbs, at prefent, it muft be con- 

 fefled, are more fightly to the eye, and confequently more 

 marketable, than the Engliih ; but it is likewife well 

 known, that much artifice is ufed in rafping, colouring, 

 and other manoeuvres, to render them fuch. By thefe 

 methods their outward appearance is fo much improved as 

 eafily to impofe on our fenfes, and even to induce fome 

 eminent druggifts to confider them as greatly preferable to 

 the Englifh. But it behoves the faculty to examine whe- 

 ther rhubarb may not acquire fome noxious quality from 

 the colouring fubftance employed, and whether the griping 

 effects fo frequently complained of, may not fometimes 

 proceed from the Dutch yellow^ extradled from buckthorn 

 berries, with which the root is commonly coloured. 



The art of difguifing, and varioufly fophifticating drugs, 

 is now become a fcience; and the dangerous confequences 

 refulting from this pernicious pradlice call aloud for the 

 intcrpofition of the legiflature. 



The foreign rhubarb may be fuppofed to acquire fome 

 advantages from foil, climate, culture, and the mode of 

 drying; but much more, I apprehend, from its fuperior 

 age. The root has not been cultivated in this climate till 

 within thefe few years i whereas the foreign rhubarb, ac- 

 cording 



