124? OFFICINAL RHUBARB. 
white. Th-e Chinese rhubarb is in roundish pieces, each 
with a large hole through the centre. It is softer than 
the former, and exhibits, when broken, many streaks 
of bright red colour. 
In some of the mountains of Tartary, rhubarb plants 
are found in great abundance. The roots, when first 
dug out of the ground, are thick, fleshy, externally of 
yellowish brown colour, and internally of bright yellow 
streaked with red veins. When they have attained 
sufficient size, they are dug up and cleansed; and the 
small fibres and the rind being cut off, they are divided 
into pieces of proper size. Each piece is then perfo- 
rated in the middle, and they are strung on cords in 
such manner as not to touch each other, and are sus- 
pended to dry, either upon adjacent trees, or in the tents. 
The sum expended for .the importation of this drug 
is said to exceed 200,OOG/. per annum, a great propor- 
tion of which, it is presumed, might be saved to the 
country by cultivation of the plants in Great Britain^ 
This was first attempted, about sixty years ago, by Dr. 
Hope, in the botanic garden at Edinburgh, and with 
such success as to prove that the climate even of Scot- 
land would be no obstacle to its increase. In 1791, Sir 
William Fordyce received from the Society for Encou- 
ragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, a 
gold medal, for having raised more than 300 plants of 
the true rhubarb from seed. And, in 1783, Mr. Davis, 
ofMineliead, in Somersetshire, brought to perfection as 
many plants as yielded three hundred pounds' weight of 
dried rhubarb. Since this period, rhubarb has been 
grown, in different parts of England, to great extent; 
and has so far flourished, that some of the roots have 
weighed seventy pounds and upwards. The principal 
difficulty has attended the curing of it; but this, after 
numerous experiments, has at length been performed in 
such manner, that the English drug has been found 
equal, or nearly equal, to that which is imported from 
Turkey and China. 
The bark of rhubarb has been used for tinctures, and 
