RHEUM PALMATUM.-PALMATED RHUBARB. 
Class IX. ENNEANDRIA.— Order III. TRIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, POLYGONEil.-THE BUCK-WHEAT TRIBE. 
The palmated rhubarb is a native of Russia, and some parts of Asia, whence the dried root is imported into 
this country for medicinal purposes. Several species, however, are known to furnish the drug of commerce. 
These grow chiefly on the declivities of the chain of mountains which stretches from the Chinese town Sini, 
to the lake Kokonor, near Thibet. The soil here is light and sandy, and the Bucharians assert that the 
best grows in the shade, on the southern side of the mountains. Linnaeus supposed the generic name 
rheum , to be derived from pe w , to flow as expressive of its action on the liver and intestinal canal. The 
old name rha, which is still retained in composition, to designate the species r/i«-ponticum, and r/ia-barba- 
rum, of the latter of which, indeed, the common name rhubarb is a corruption, was given to the plant from 
its being at first procured only from the banks of the Rha, or Volga. Ammianus Marcellinus confirms this 
opinion, for he says, “The Rha is a river, on the border of which grows a root, which bears its name, and 
is much renowned in medicine. ( Loudon's Encyc.) 
The root of the palmate species is large, thick, oval, branched, brown externally, and of a deep yellow 
colour within. The stem is erect, round, hollow, jointed, branched at top, and rises to the height of six or 
eight feet. The lower leaves are very large, palmated, acuminate, somewhat rugged, and stand upon long- 
channelled smooth petioles, grooved above and rounded at the edge with ferruginous dots ; those of the 
stem are placed close to the stalks, and become gradually smaller towards the summit. The flowers, which 
appear in May and June, are small and numerous, surrounding the stem, and collected at the extremity 
of the branches, forming a sort of spike. The perianth is divided into six obtuse segments ; the filaments 
are nine, the length of the sepals, and supporting oblong anthers; the style is short, with three reflected 
stigmas. The ovary becomes a triangular, pointed nut, with membranaceous margins. 
The common Rhubarb (Rheum Rhaponticum) was first cultivated by Mr. John Parkinson, in 1629, the 
seeds of which were sent to him by Dr. Lister, one of the king’s physicians. On making trial of the roots, 
they were found very inferior in power to those of the Rhubarb of commerce. In 1759, Dr. Boerhaave 
procured the seeds of Rheum undulatum, which is a native of China and Siberia. It was cultivated by Mr. 
Miller, but not very generally received as the true Rhubarb ; which induced Boerhaave to procure from a 
merchant the seeds of the plants which produced the roots that he annually sold, and were admitted at St. 
Petersburgh to be the genuine medicinal Rhubarb. These seeds were soon propagated, and were discovered 
to produce two distinct species, namely, the Rheum undulatum, referred to above, and the Rheum palma- 
tum, which has for some time been supposed to be the true plant, not only by botanists, but by the ac- 
knowledged authorities in the Pharmacopoeias of London and Edinburgh ; though the Dublin college retain 
the Rherfm undulatum. The seeds of Rheum palmatum were first introduced into Britain in 1762, by Dr. 
Mounsey, ,who sent them from Russia ; both Professor Martyn and Dr. Hope cultivated them at the same 
time, the former at Cambridge, and the latter at Edinburgh. It appears, however, that we are indebted to 
several species of Rheum for our valuable medicine, as Georgi relates that a Cossack pointed out the Rheum 
undulatum to him as the true Rhubarb ; while Prof. Pallas states that in Bukharia, the palmated sort seems 
to be unknown ; and that as far as he could collect from description, the species they consider as the true 
one is the compactum, the seeds of which, Mr. Miller informs us, were sent to him from St. Petersburgh, 
as the true Tartarian Rhubarb. The Chinese Rhubarb, called by the natives Ta Hwangor Hai-houng is 
cultivated chiefly in the province of Cher-see. 
For the following remarks on the Rhubarb of commerce, we are indebted to an interesting paper pub- 
lished in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, by Mr. David Don, Professor of Botany, at King’s College, 
London, &c. “ Mr. Sievers, an enterprising assistant of Professor Pallas, and well known by his interesting 
Letters on Siberia, published in the Nordische Bey tr age, was sent by the Empress Catharine II., purposely 
to try to obtain the true Rhubarb plant from its native country ; and although, after travelling for seven 
