382 
cannot forbear saying, that whether 
regarded as a botanist, a physician, 
or a man, he was an ornament to 
his country. ny 
- About seven years after the period 
to which I refer, 1 found plenty of 
the true palmated rhubarb in the 
botanical garden at Edinburgh, as 
well as in that of the amiable Baro- 
net above named, From him I 
brought some, both of the roots and 
of the seeds into England. 
Whence it happens, that cultiva- 
tion of this root, as an articleof pub- 
lic utility, is still generally neglected, 
I know not; unless it’ be the sup- 
posed difficulty attending the drying 
of it. I have been told, that not less 
than 200,0001. is paid annually for 
rhubarb imported into this country : 
and it is likely to cost yet more, if 
not propagated by ourselves, as mo- 
dern luxury daily increases. 
It is certain that the enormous 
quantity of butter, in all its different 
forms and uses, constantly devoured 
by vast'‘numbers of both sexes ; with 
every species of fat foods and heavy 
ales, besides porter; want of due ex- 
. ercise, and the pernicious custom of 
late hours, and jading attendance on 
gay assemblies and card tables, infi- 
nitely hurtful to bealth; it is cer- 
tain, I say, that all these, with other 
causes that might be named, concur 
in rendering extraordinary aids to di- 
gestion necessary. But what aids so 
natural, safe, or efficacious, as ve- 
getable bitters as well as vegetable 
acids ? 
Convinced that the former are pe- 
culiarly calculated, when properly 
combined with other ingredients, to 
supply the deficiency of bile, and of 
the pancreatic juice, I was led to 
bestow particular attention upon the 
culture of rhubarb, after the lights I 
had received concerning it: and a 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1702. 
sample of its roots, which grew in 
my own garden on Putney-heath, I 
took the liberty of exhibiting to the 
- Society, encouraged by a certificate 
from the druggists in the city, that. 
they had found it of superior good- © 
ness, as well as the first English spe) 
cimen which they had seen of tru 
marketable rhubarb, or the rheum 
palmatum of the Dispensatory. For 
this the Society honoured me with 
a-Jetter of thanks, and afterwards 
with a gold medal. 
To this attempt I am emboldened, 
by having last summer raised more 
than three hundred plants, and after= 
wards transplanted themin a thriving 
condition, according to the rules and 
orders of the Society, with the pro- 
per certificates. 
As soon as I had seed enough for 
the purpose of making experiments, 
I sowed it in a hot-bed, and when it 
had shot up with three or four seed- 
Jeaves, I planted it out in an east and 
south-east exposure, where ground 
upmanured, or not too rich, is least 
apt to breed the fly: to which indeed 
this plant is more subject than even 
the turnip. On the whole, it has 
answered best when sown in the si- 
tuation now mentioned, during the 
last half of the month of March, or 
in April, or even as far as the end 
of May; or yet later, if the spring 
has proved cold and dry. It may be 
also transplanted duriog the whole 
course of the summer. Sets like- 
wise, from the more abundant stems, 
will often succeed very well; and 
even the tap-root, in the deepest 
mould, and where the upper part is 
already fit to be cut into slices of 
two inches in depth and three in 
breadth, before the plant has pushed 
out its rapid stems, 
With regard to the time of taking 
up the roots, that may be done with 
safety 
