213 RHEUM OFFICINALE 



Official Part and Names. RHEI RADIX; the dried root deprivvd 

 of the bark, from one or more undetermined species of Rheum, 

 Linn. (B. P.). The dried decorticated root (I. P.). RHEUM; *hu 

 root of Rheum palmatum, and other species of Rheum, from China', 

 Chinese Tartary, and Thibet (U. S. P.). 



It will be seen from our botanical description, and also from 

 the above extracts from the British Pharmacopoeia, and the Phar- 

 macopoeias of India and the United States, that the botanical 

 source of the official rhubarb is not yet absolutely proved, although 

 it seems clear that it is derived, in part at least, from this species ; 

 hence all particulars as to the Collection, Commerce, General 

 Characters, Composition, Medical Properties, and Uses of this 

 drug, are reserved by us until we treat of Rheum palmatum, which 

 the more reliable information of former writers, as well as the 

 recent travels of Lieut. -Colonel N. Prejevalsky-in Mongolia, 

 prove to be another source of Chinese rhubarb, and probably 

 that from which our best commercial specimens are derived. 

 But that Rheum officinale does also yield a kind of rhubarb 

 having some of the marked characters of true Chinese rhubarb 

 we have proved by the examination of a specimen of the root 

 of this plant cultivated in this country by Mr. Usher, of Bodicott, 

 near Banbury. The characters of this rhubarb are more fully 

 described under Rheum palmatum. 



Pharinacographia, p. 442 ; Per. Mat. Med., by B. & R., p. 568 ; 

 Pharm. Journ., vol. iii, ser. 3, p. 301 ; L'Union Pharmaceutique, 

 vol. xv, p. 21 ; Pharm. Journ., vol. iv, ser. 3, p. 690, and vol. vi, 

 p. 861. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. 



Drawn from a plant in Kew Gardens, flowering in May ; the fruit from a 

 plant in the garden of the Royal Botanic Society, Regent's Park. 



1. A plant in flower (about T ^ nat. size). 2. Portion of the inflorescence, 

 3. A flower. 4. Vertical section of the same. 5. Diagram of the same. 

 6. A spike of ripe fruit. 7. A single fruit. 8. Vertical, and 9. Transverse 

 section of the same. 



(35 and 79 enlarged.) 



