RHUBARB. 173 



the native place, encreafe to a vaft fize; fome, when fiefli, have 

 been found to weigh fifty pounds, and to be equal in fmell, tafte, 

 and efFe6t to thofe we import at an enormous expence to our 

 country. On being dried, they fhrink to one quarter of their 

 original weight. There is reafon to fuppofe that the Scotch 

 rhubarb may be fuperior in virtue to the foreign, the laft being 

 gathered in all feafons, as the Mongall hunters chance to pafs by. 

 They draw up the roots indifcriminately, pierce them at one end, 

 fling them on their belts, and leave them to dry on their tents 

 without further care. In all probability the time is not remote 

 in which the Britijh rhubarb will fuperfede the neceflity of the 

 ufe of the foreign. 



But there are other kinds which are faid to be equally effi- 

 cacious with the Rheum Palmatum, fuch as the Rbeum Rhabar- 

 barum of Linnams^ the Undulatum of the Hortus Kewenjis, 

 with long waved leaves ; the Rbeum CompaBum, a third fpecies, 

 boafts of the fame virtues; Miller had the feeds fent to him 

 as thofe of the true kind. The Rheum Rhaponticum is befides 

 met with in Tartary about lake Baikal, as well as moft of the 

 others. This is the fpecies which gave the name of Rhubarb or 

 rather Rhabarb to this drug, the plant being firft obferved near 

 to the banks of the ancient Rha, or river Volga ; the fame pre- 

 fcribed by Paulus Mginatus as one of the ingredients for a purge, 

 under the name of Rbeujn Ponticum-, perhaps the trivial might 

 be derived from its being brought from fome part of Pojitus, to 

 which it was carried from its place of growth. Pliny* mentions 

 a plant with a medicinal root called Rbacoma ; he fays it came 



* Lib. xxvii. c, I2.- 



from 



