RHEUM 269 



early as the year 114 B. C. Goods thus transported 

 might reach Europe either by way of the Black Sea, or 

 by conveyance down the Indus to the ancient port of 

 Barbarike. 



"The terms Rheum barbarum or Reu barbarum occur 

 in the writings of Alexander Trallianus about the middle 

 of the 6th century, and in those of Benedictus Crispus, 

 archbishop of Milan, and Isidore of Seville, who both 

 nourished in the 7th century. Among the Arabian 

 writers on medicine, the younger Mesue, in the early 

 part of the llth century, mentions the rhubarb of 

 China as superior to the Barbaric or Turkish. Con- 

 stantinus Africanus about the same period speaks of 

 Indian and Pontic Rheum, the former of which he de- 

 clares to be preferable. In 1154, the celebrated Arabian 

 geographer Edrisi mentions rhubarb as a product of 

 China, growing in the mountains of Buthink probably 

 the environs of northeastern Tibet near Lake Tengri 

 Nor. 



"Rhubarb in the 12th century was probably imported 

 from India, as we may infer from the tariff of duties 

 levied at the port of Aeon in Syria, in which document 

 it is enumerated along with many Indian drugs. A 

 similar list of A. D. 1271, relating to Barcelona, men- 

 tions Ruibardo. In a statute of the city of Pisa called 

 the Breve Funda-cariorum, dating 1305, rhubarb 

 (ribarbari) is classified with commodities of the Levant 

 and India. 



"The first and almost the only European who has 

 visited the rhubarb yielding countries of China, is the 

 famous Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, who speaking 

 of the province of Tangut, says: 'Among all the moun- 



