ТНК RHUBARB PLANT. 291 



the richest ; they are natives of the province of Shan-si, 

 and by their superior enterprise have monopohsed most of 

 the Central Asian trade. There is also a community of 

 Mongol merchants and Turkestan traders come from 

 Turfan. The author gives no details concerning the trade, 

 merely remarking that the local consumption of tobacco 

 and brandy is enormous. 



We have omitted, for the sake of brevity, the author's 

 remarks on the peculiarities of the Urumchi country, its 

 wonderful boars, and its snakes with tails so stumpy as to 

 have the appearance of having been cut off. We also 

 readily omit his sketch of the manners and morals of the 

 inhabitants and the dissipated lives led there by the foreign 

 merchants ; he observes, amongst other things, how easily 

 the Chinese merchants accustom themselves to the gay life 

 at Urumchi and forget their homes ; and how it frequently 

 happens that the families of such persons petition govern- 

 ment to take measures to oblige their relatives to return, 

 and that in consequence these are summarily arrested and 

 sent back to China under escort. 



THE RHUBARB PLANT. 

 P. 81. 



The following Note is a translation of an article which 

 appeared in Kegel's ' Garten Flora ' (January 1875), from the 

 pen of Professor Maximovitch, of St. Petersburg, who is at 

 present engaged in preparing for publication the botanical 

 results of Colonel Prejevalsky's expedition, and to whose 

 kindness I am also indebted for the illustration of the 

 Rhubarb plant on page 82 of this volume. 



By way of introduction, I give an extract from ' Purchas, 

 his Pilgrimage,' ' a collection of travels in all parts of the 

 world,' published in London in 1617: — 



' In the same province of Tanguth is Succuir,' whose 

 mountains are clothed with rheubarbe, from whence it is by 



' i.e. Suh-chau. 



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