494 POLYGONACEyE. 



Barbaric or Turkish.^ Constantinus Africanus ^ about the same period 

 speaks of Indian and Pontic Rheum, tlie former of which he declares to 

 be preferable. In 1154 the celebrated Arabian geographer Edrisi ^ 

 mentions rhubarb as a product of China, growing in the mountains of 

 Buthink — probably the environs of north-eastern Tibet near Lake 

 Tengri Nor (or Bathang in Western Szechuen ?). 



Rhubarb in the 12th century was probably imported from India, as 

 we may infer from the tariff of duties levied at the port of Aeon in 

 Syria, in which document^ it is enumerated along with many Indian 

 drugs. A similar list of A.D. 1271, relating to Barcelona, mentions 

 Ridharho.^ In a statute of the city of Pisa called the Breve Funda- 

 carioruTn, dating 1305, rhubarb {ribarhari) is classified with commo- 

 dities of the Levant and India.** 



The first and almost the only European who has visited the rhubarb- 

 yielding countries of China is the famous Venetian traveller, Marco 

 Polo,^ who speaking of the province of Tangut says — " , . et par toutes 

 les montagnes de ces provinces se treuve le reoharbe en grant habond- 

 ance. Et illec I'achatent les marchans et le portent par le monde." 



A sketch of the history of rhubarb would be incomplete without 

 some reference to the various routes by which the drug has been 

 conveyed to Europe from the western provinces of the Chinese Empire, 

 and which have given rise to the familiar designations of Russian, 

 Turkey and China Rhubarb.^ 



The Jirst route is that over the barren steppes of Central Asia by 

 Yarkand, Kashgar, Turkestan, and the Caspian to Russia ; the second 

 by the Indus or the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and Alexandria, or by 

 Persia to Syria and Asia Minor ; and the third by way of Canton, the 

 only port of the Chinese Empire which, previous to the year 1842, held 

 direct communication with Europe. 



In 1653 China first permitted Russia to trade on her actual frontiers. 

 The traffic in Chinese goods was thereupon diverted from the line of 

 the Caspian and Black Sea further north, taking its way from Tangut 

 across the steppes of the high Gobi, and through Siberia by Tobolsk to 

 Moscow. Thus it is mentioned in 1719 that Urga on the north edge 

 of the Gobi desert was the principal depot for rhubarb. From the 

 earliest times, Bucharian merchants appear to have been agents on this 

 traffic, the producers of the drug never concerning themselves about 

 its export. 



Consequent on the rectification of frontier in 1728, a line of custom- 

 houses was established by treaty between Russia and China, whereby 

 the commerce, previously unrestricted, was limited to the government 

 caravans which passed the frontier only at Kiachta and at Zuruchaitu, 

 south of Nerchinsk. The latter place always remained unimportant, 



^ Ravedsceni, Raved barbarum, and Raved ' Capmany, Memorias de . . . Barcelona, 



Turchicum are the terms used in the Latin i. (1779) 44. 

 translations we have consulted. ^ Bonaini, Statuti inediti della cittd di 



'^ De omnibus medico cognilu necessarils, Pisa dal xii al xivsecolo, iii. (Firenze, 1857) 



Basil. 1539. 354. 106. 115. 



3 Translation of Jaubert, i. (Paris, 1836) " Pauthier, Le Livre de Marco Polo . . . 



494. rMigi en fran^ais sous sa dict^e en 1298 jntr 



* Assises de Jerusalem contained in the Rusticien de Pise, i. (1865) 165. ii. 490. 

 Recuril des Historiens des Croisades, Lois, ** For further particulars, see my paper 



ii. (1843) 176. mentioned at page 493, note 1.— F. A. F. 



