HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



187 



RHE 



Rheumatism Boot. See Jeffersonia. 



Hheum. Rhubarb. From WKI, the Russian 

 name of the River Wolga, near which the Rhu- 

 barb was found. Linn. Enneandria - Trigynia. 

 Nat. Ord. PolygonacecK. 



Some of the species of this well-known genus 

 have been cultivated from the earliest ages for 

 the medicinal properties they possess. Dioscor- 

 ides, who was physician to Antony and Cleo- 

 patra; wrote on its qualities, and recommended 

 it for use. The Turkish Rhubarb, so largely 

 employed in medicine, is the root of K. pa'ma- 

 tum, a native of China, and sent to Europe 

 through Russia, by the way of Kiachta. It was 

 formerly imported from Natolia, whence the 

 name Turkey Rhubarb. The Turks get the 

 credit of producing this important article of 

 commerce, when, in reality, it only passes 

 through their country. An inferior article used 

 in the adulteration of this drug is grown 

 throughout Southern Europe. The Rhubarb of 

 our gardens is a hybrid of K. Shaponticum, a 

 native of Asia, but of what particular part is not 

 known, nor the time of its introduction. It was 

 first cultivated in England by Dr. Fothergill in 

 1778, but did not come into general use as a 

 culinary vegetable until several years later. As 

 a market crop it has only been cultivated about 

 fifty years. Many varieties have been intro- 

 duced, for which we are chiefly indebted to the 

 English gardeners. Some of the varieties, un- 

 der high cultivation, produce enormous leaf- 

 stems; the size, however, is largely at the ex- 

 pense of quality. An ornamental species has 

 been lately introduced into England, and flow- 

 ered last season (1880) in the Botanic Garden at 

 Glasgow, Scotland. The flowers are hid beneath 

 stipules or scales, and these are said to be beau- 

 tifully colored. It is known as R. nobile. Dr. 

 Hooker, speaking of this Sikkim species as he 

 saw it growing wild, says that it has such a sin- 

 gular and showy appearance, that its introduc- 

 tion into cultivation is greatly to be desired. 

 He thus describes the plant: "The individual 

 plants of It. nobile are upward of a yard high, 

 and form conical towers of the most delicate 

 straw-colored, shining, semi-transparent, con- 

 cave, imbricating bracts, the upper of which 

 have pink edges; the large, bright, glossy, shin- 

 ing green radical leaves, with red petioles and 

 nerves, forming a broad base to the whole. On 

 turning up the bracts, the beautiful membran- 

 ous, fragile pink stipules are seen like red tissue 

 paper, and within these again the short-branch- 

 ed panicles of insignificant green flowers. The 

 root is very long, often many feet, and winds 

 among the rocks ; it is as thick as the arm, and 

 bright j r ellow inside. After flowering the stem 

 lengthens, the bracts separate one from another, 

 become coarse red brown, withered and torn; 

 finally, as the fruit ripens they fall away, leaving 

 a ragged-looking stem, covered with panicles of 

 deep brown, pendulous fruits. In the winter 

 these naked black stems, projecting from the 

 beetling cliffs or towering above the snow, are in 

 dismal keeping with the surrounding desolation 

 of the season." The natives, it is said, eat the 

 pleasantly acid stems, and call them Cliuh-a. 

 Rlmrbarb is a plant found in every well- 

 appointed garden. It is of the easiest culture, 

 and will grow in open sunshine or partial 

 shade; but for its best development a deep, 

 rich, well-drained soil in open sunshine is 

 indispensable. When wanted for private use 

 a couple of dozen plants, which can be procured 



RHE 



cheaply from almost any nurseryman, is the 

 best way to get a supply; but when wanted in 

 quantity for market purposes, the cheapest way 

 is to sow the seed in March or April in well- 

 prepared and richly manured land in rows four 

 feet apart. When the plants come up so as to 

 have covered the ground, thin them out to two 

 or three inches apart; and again later in the 

 season, say by August, to two feet apart, so that 

 they will now stand two feet between the plants 

 and four feet between the rows. The last thin- 

 nings, if needed, may be used for making per- 

 manent plantations. Another plan of raising 

 Rhubarb from seed is as follows: about the mid- 

 dle of March sow the seeds thickly in a cold pit 

 or frame, in light, fibrous soil, such as leaf- 

 mould, so that the young plants will make fibers 

 freely, and thus be easily transplanted. One 

 pound of seed will be enough to sow six 3x6 

 sashes, and will give about one thousand plants. 

 In four or five weeks after sowing the plants 

 will be fit for transplanting, which may be done 

 in richly-prepared beds of six rows each, at a 

 distance of one foot each way. By fall they will 

 have made fine, well-ripened roots, which may 

 be thinned out either in the fall or spring, leav- 

 ing the plants that stand at four feet between 

 the plants and six feet between the rows. The 

 plants that have not been moved will give a 

 partial crop the next year, or in about fifteen or 

 sixteen months after the seed was sown. The 

 roots lifted out as thinnings should be planted, 

 either in the fall or spring, for a permanent crop, 

 at the same distances apart; but, having been 

 disturbed, they will make a weaker growth, and 

 no crop should be taken the first year of plant- 

 ing, as removing the leaves of course weakens 

 the newly-planted root, which has not yet vigor 

 enough to endure it. The second year after 

 planting, however, a full crop will be obtained*, 

 if the ground has been in a proper, well-pulver- 

 ized, and enriched condition. The most profit- 

 able and simple part of Rhubarb growing is by 

 forcing after a supply of large roots has been 

 obtained; and if forcing is to be continued, a 

 succession of such supply should always be on 

 hand, as the roots, after forcing, are worthless. 

 All that is necessary in forcing Rhubarb is to 

 take the large three or four-year-old roots from 

 the open field, which, if well grown, will be 

 from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter, and 

 pack them upright as closely as they can be 

 wedged together, (with light soil shook in to fill 

 the interstices between the roots,) under the 

 stage or benches of the green-house, or in a 

 warm cellar, or, in fact, in any place where 

 there is a growing temperature; say an average 

 of sixty degrees. But little water is needed, and 

 none until the Rhubarb shows signs of healthy 

 growth. There is no necessity for light; in fact, 

 the stems being blanched by being grown in the 

 dark, are much more tender than when grown 

 in the light and air of the open garden, and are 

 therefore more valuable, besides being forced at 

 a season (from January to April) when they are 

 not obtainable in the open ground in the North- 

 ern States. Many of our market gardeners and 

 florists, who, once having a supply of Rhubarb 

 roots, pack them under the benches of the 

 green - house, where vegetable or flowering 

 plants are grown, realize nearly as much 

 profit from the space under the stage (usually 

 useless) as on it. It is also forwarded in an- 

 other way by those who have no green-house. 

 The roots are taken up in the fall and packed 



