Nov. 1 6, 1 388.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



507 



Natural ^motg* 



OFFICINAL RHUBARB AND GARDEN RHUBARB 



(Rheum Officinale and Rheum Hybridum). 

 In adapting from our esteemed contemporary Cosmos 

 an account of these two plants, we shall be com- 



ment acquired a monopoly of this drug. Their commis- 

 sioners, established at Kiachta, on the Chinese frontier, 

 bought all the roots, and selected the finest for trans- 

 mission to Europe, where they were sold under official 

 supervision. Hence the Russian rhubarb is still highly 

 esteemed in the drug trade. Since 1863, however, this 

 monopoly has come to an end. The rhubarb is generally 





pelled to rectify a few errors as far as garden rhubarb is 

 concerned. 



The medicinal or so-called Turkey rhubarb has been 

 cultivated in Europe for some time, but long previously 

 its root had been used as a tonic and purgative. All that 

 was known about it in former days was that it was 

 imported from Asia, and especially from China, in the 

 form of irregular woody fragments. The Russian Govern- 



met with in rounded fragments of a rather pure yellow. 

 It broken, the fracture is marked with red and white 

 veins. Its' odour is powerful, and its taste bitter. It 

 crackles under the teeth, and colours the saliva yellow. 

 The lumps are pierced with hcles, in which small frag- 

 ments of gut-cord are often found. When the crop is 

 gathered the lumps are strung on a cord, like a chaplet 

 of beads, and are dried in the sun. In certain villages. 



