NATIONS ADJACENT. 171 



part of Shen-fi, and the upper part of the laft is bounded by HoJ^o- 

 fior Tartars ; in their country is a large lake of the fame name, in 

 Lat. 35. 36. Thefe Tartars have among them a coarfe woollen 

 mannfaaure, which they difpofe of to the Chineje. Inacceffible 

 and rude mountains lie to the fouth of that people, inhabited by 

 a moft favage race, fo as to cut them off from all intercourfe with 

 the ftill more fouthern countries. 



Let me here introduce fome account of the celebrated drug. Of Rhubarb. 

 the Rhubarb, of which Tartary and Chi7ia is the feat. The 

 rhubarb of all the medicinal kinds is found in great abundance 

 in feveral parts of the Chinefe dominions, and even in ChinaiiML 

 In the province of Se-chwen, in the mountains of Snow, in 

 Shen-Ji, where troops of camels are loaden with nets full of rhu- 

 barb in the months of QSiober and November : it abounds alfo in 

 Tanguth about the lake Koko-nor, Little Bucharia, and all the 

 chain of hills from lake Baikal weftward. It grows fouth as far 

 as fluang-tung ; but the fouthern rhubarb is little efteemed, yet 

 much of it comes to Europe by fea ; I may add, that out of the 

 Chinefe empire it is found in Thibet. 



Rhubarb was known to Diof cor ides ^ who lived in the reign of 

 Nero, as a valuable purge ; and Paulus jEginetus, a phyfician of 

 the feventh century, prefcribed it for the fame purpofe. It was 

 brought from the remoteft parts of the ancient Scythia, and the 

 ufe was continued through all fucceeding ages, without any cer- 

 tain knowledge of the plant to which the roots belonged. Marco 

 Polo obferved it on the rocky mountain near Sucbur, in the pro- 

 vince of Tanguib, and fays it was fent to all paits of the earth; 

 for it found its way to Europe from thofe dirtant regions even in 

 that early time. 



Z 2 Gerard 



