RHEUM SPICIFORME. 85 



Koko-nor, in the snowy range south of Si-ning, and 

 in the Yegrai-ula, near the sources of the Yellow 

 River. We could not ascertain positively if it grows 

 in the neighbouring province of Sze-chuan, but it 

 is not found in Northern Tibet. Thus from all the 

 information we could gather, it is limited to the 

 alpine country of Lake Koko-nor and the sources 

 of the Yellow River.^ 



Another kind {Rheum spicifoi'mc) ^ is also found 

 in the Kan-su mountains, where it only grows in the 

 alpine region. This plant has a thin branched 

 root about four fee*" long, but is unfit for medicinal 

 purposes. It grows in the Himalayas and Thian 

 Shan, and we often saw its withered leaves in winter 

 in Northern Tibet. 



We have already said that the forests grow 

 10,000 feet above sea-level ; higher than this they 

 are replaced by alpine bushes and by meadows ; the 

 rhododendra, of which we found four kinds — all 

 pronounced to be new by the botanist Maximovitch 



^ The above described plant is not the same as that which has 

 lately been introduced into European gardens as the true rhubarb of 

 commerce, namely R. officinale, Baillon (see Fliickiger & Hanbury, 

 ' Pharmacographie,' p. 442), The latter plant is a native of Mongolia, 

 and is described by Bell, of Antermony, in his travels (vol. i. p. 384- 

 387). Several species are cultivated in Europe, and their roots are exten- 

 sively used as substitutes for the Chinese plant, especially the R. Rha- 

 ponticum, in England, and Л'. palinatiim itself, \vhich has been grown 

 on a large scale in Russia and elsewhere on the Continent, where, 

 however, its central root proves liable to decay. It was long ago as- 

 certained by the French pharmacologist, M. Guibourt, that the root of 

 the cultivated R. palmatiivi approached most nearly to that of the 

 imported plant.— J. D. H. [See Supplementary Note.] 



^ The Tangutans call this kind zarchium, and the Mongols Kur- 

 meh-shara-moto. 



