213 RHEUM OFFICINALE 



brilliant crimson-red, with many close transverse veins and a 

 strong longitudinal intramarginal rib ; pericarp very thin, papery, 

 transparent, yellow, with two large channels or vittae along the 

 centre of each side filled with a dark yellow liquid with a resinous 

 odour and staining properties. Seed solitary, erect, testa exceed- 

 ingly thin, united with the pericarp ; embryo small, with a superior 

 radicle and oval cotyledons, lying in the axis of the dense, tough 

 but milky endosperm. 



Habitat. All that is certainly known about this fine species of 

 Rheum, which no doubt is the source of at least a portion of the 

 Ehubarb of commerce, is that in 1867 the " Societe d'Acclimata- 

 tion " at Paris received from M. Dabry, French Consul, a large 

 consignment of roots professing to be those of the true official 

 Rhubarb. They had come to him through a missionary at 

 Set-chuan, who probably had obtained them from a Chinese, and 

 there is no doubt that they were collected in the south-eastern 

 part of Thibet near the Chinese frontier. The plant is said to 

 grow wild and also to be cultivated there, and it probably extends 

 into China itself, but whether it grows in the districts, Sui- 

 tschuan, Schensi, and Kansu, from which the best rhubarb is now 

 obtained, is not known. The whole on its arrival at Paris 

 appeared to be one putrifying mass, but by a piece of good 

 fortune a few of the globular axillary buds retained sufficient 

 vitality when placed under favorable conditions to put out adventi- 

 tious roots, and ultimately a plant was raised. Of this after 

 some years' cultivation in the botanic garden of the Faculty of 

 Medicine in Paris, M. Baillon, in 1872, gave a full description and 

 from this source all the plants now existing in Europe have been 

 derived. 



In this country it was first grown in 1873, by the late D. Han- 

 bury, who also sent specimens to Mr. Usher, of Banbury (who 

 commenced the cultivation of the plant for medicinal use), to 

 Kew, and to other gardens. These flowered in 1874, and since 

 then it has been to some extent grown as an ornamental plant, 

 and from its extremely handsome character will, no doubt, as it is 

 quite hardy and readily propagated, become common in gardens. 



