RADIX RHEI. 497 



of the high plateaux, growing particularly well on spots that have been 

 enriched by encampments. 



What little we know regarding the production of rhubarb and its 

 preparation for the market, from Catholic missionaries,^ is of a rather 

 meagre and unsatisfactory character. The root is dug up at the begin- 

 ning of autumn when the vegetation of the plant is on the decline, and 

 the operation is probably continued for a few months, or in some 

 districts for the whole winter. It is cleaned, its cortical part sliced oft', 

 and the root cut into pieces for drying. This is performed either by 

 the aid of fire heat, or by simple exposure to sun and air, or the pieces 

 are first partially dried on a hot stone, and then strung on a cord and 

 suspended until the desiccation is complete. 



According to F. von Richthofen" the best rhubarb is collected ex- 

 clusively from plants growing wild in the high alps of western Szechuen, 

 especially in the Bayankara range, between the sources of the Hoangho 

 and the rivers Ya-lung-Kiang and Min-Kiang. This variety is chiefly 

 known under the name Shensi rhubarb, although the inhabitants of the 

 province of Szechuen pretend the superiority of the drug of their own 

 country. The important places for the commodity are Sining-fu in the 

 province of Kansu, and Kwan-hien in Szechuen. In the plain of 

 Tshing-tu-fu, according to Richthofen, rhubaib is cultivated in fields, 

 but its product is stated to be much inferior to that of the true plant 

 which is said not to succeed under culture. 



Rhubarb is now purchased for the European market chiefly at 

 Hankow on the upper Yaugtsze, whither it is brought from the 

 provinces of Shensi, Kansu, and Szechuen. From Hankow it is sent 

 down to Shanghai, and there shipped for Europe. The exports from 

 Hankow are stated in official documents^ to have amounted to the 

 following numbers of peculs (one pecul = 1S3| lb. = 60479 kilo- 

 grammes) : 



1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 

 2985 3425 2866 3398 3370 3859 3167 



In 1877 there were exported by way of Hankow 2096 peculs from 

 Shensi and 3385 peculs from Szechuen. — From all the Chinese ports, 

 5124 peculs of rhubarb were shipped in 1874. 



Much smaller quantities (554 peculs in 1872, 1055 peculs in 1874) 

 are shipped from Tientsin ; and there are occasional exportations from 

 Canton, Amoy, Foochow, and Ningpo. The imports of rhubarb into 

 the United Kingdom in 1870 amounted to 343,306 lb., the estimated 

 value of which was £62,716.^ 



We have no information about the rhubarb which is stated by 

 Bellew^ to grow on the hills near Kayn or Ghayn in eastern Persia 

 (about 321° N. lat.). 



Description — China Rhubarb as imported into Europe^ consists of 



^ Chauveaii, Vicar Apostolic of Tibet 1872. No. 3. p. 57, and 1874 (1875) No. 5. 



(1870), and Biet, a French missionary, both * Annual statement of the Trade and 



quoted by Collin in his thesis Den Rhu- Navijation of the United Kingdom for 



barbes, Paris, 1871. 22. 24. 1870. 79. 



2 Petermann's Geograph. Mittheilungen, ^ From the Indus to the Tigris, London, 



viii. (1873)302. 1874. 321. 



' Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports " It is now often trimmed by wholesale 



of China for 1870 ; Commercial Reports druggists to simulate the old Russian 



from Her Majesty's Consuls in China, rhubarb. 



2i 



