RHUBARB. 121 



This plant does not run and spread itself, 

 like docks and others of the same species; 

 but grows in tufts, at uncertain distances, as 

 if the seeds had been dropped with design. 



It appears that the Mongals never ac- 

 counted it worth cultivation ; but that the 

 world is obliged to the marmots for the 

 quantities scattered, at random, in many 

 parts of that country, the seeds taking root 

 among the loose earth thrown up by these 

 animals. 



Rhubarb has been cultivated of late years 

 in this country with considerable success, 

 and for medical purposes is found to equal 

 that of foreign growth, as is proved by the 

 Transactions of the London Society for en- 

 couraging Arts, &c. We learn from the 

 Hortus Kewensis, that six varieties of this 

 plant have been introduced and cultivated 

 with success during the last century. The 

 palmated leaved, P alma turn, or true China 

 rhubarb, was first planted in this country in 

 1763. In the Transactions of the London 

 Society of Arts for 1792, the gold medal 

 was adjudged to Sir William Fordyce, for 

 raising from seed, in the preceding year, up- 

 wards of 300 plants of the true rhubarb, or 

 Rheum palmatum, of the London Pharmaco- 

 poeia, 1788. In 1793 it was adjudged to Mr. 



