GROWTH AND PREPARATION OF RHUBARB IN CHINA. 
377 
strung together like cash.* * * § The root thus cut and partially dried is then 
hung up ,111 the shade till it becomes perfectly drv and fit for the market. 
1 Jie rhubarb wh,ch Z vows in Shen-si, Kan-suh, and in the west of Si-chwan, 
is all of good quality. That which grows in Skan-si, Chihli, and other places 
to the north of these, is smaller in size, and not equal to that of Si-chwan in 
point of strength. YY hat 1 an-hung-Icing says about the Si-chwan rhubarb 
being inferior to that of Lung-si is a mistake. 
5. S/i-sung says, that rhubarb grows everywhere in Si-chwan, east of the 
eilow Liver, and in Shen-si. Ihe Si-chwan rhubarb is fine-grained. Next 
comes that ot Shen-si. the plant of the latter produces green leaves in the 
first month, which resemble those of the Pima (liieinus communis, Linn.), and 
are as large as a fan. The root resembles a Chinese potato.f the largest 
cln .? the size of a basin, and from one to two feet long. In the fourth month 
a yellow flower opens ; in the second and eighth months the root is extracted, 
and the black skin which covers it being taken off, it is cut in horizontal 
slices, and dried by means of artificial heat. The Si-chwan rhubarb is cut 
perpendicularly, which makes the slices resemble the tongue of an ox, and, 
hence it is called the ox-tongue rhubarb.J The uses and value of these two 
kinds ot rhubarb is the same. Hwai-ngan-fu, in the province of Kiang-su, 
produces what is called Tu-ta-kwang, local rhubarb.§ The flower opens in tho 
second month. 
n Jio prepared some diagrams illustrative of the productions of 
Ym-cliau, in Si-chivan, says that t-lie rhubarb plant grows everywhere among 
the high mountains of Si-chwan. Its stalk is red ; the leaf is large ; and the 
root so large that it is used for a pillow in the medicine markets. He also 
states that the Lung-si rhubarb, in Shen-si, was considered best in his time. 
He lived m the Sung dynasty, between 1000 a.d. and 1270 a.d. 
It seems that the Yang-ti plant has been mistaken by some for the rhubarb 
on account of its resemblance to it. Li-shi-chen affirms that it is quite a dis¬ 
tinct species. 
. The foregoing account, as Mr. John observes in a letter to Mr. Lockhart, 
is far horn satisfactory. The information is meagre and somewhat contra¬ 
dictory ; nevertheless, it appears to me to add something to our former know¬ 
ledge, and to throw a little light on the species, as it certainly does on the 
localities of the rhubarb plant. It is probably by collecting and comparing 
such information that we shall ultimately get at the truth. Avoiding repeti¬ 
tions. the above-mentioned statements may be arranged as follows 
. Localities. -The rhubarb plant grows in the provinces of Shan-si and Shen¬ 
si, which ai o situated respectively east and west of the Yellow Liver, m tho 
upper part of its course, before it turns eastward towards the Yellow Sea. 
Lung-si, in the province ot Shen-si, is one of its best localities. It also grows in 
Clnl-li and other places further north, in Kan-suh, which borders on Mongolia, 
noith of lake Koko-nor, and in the Nan-chan mountains, and everywhere among 
the high mountains of the province of Sz-clnien (or Si-chwan), which lies to 
the cast ot Ihibet, and 3—400 miles north-east of the northern extremity of 
Birmah. J 
* Cash 
h is a foreign name for C3iine.se copper coins, called tunq-tseen, with a square hole in 
tlie centre.—L. 1 
f The Chinese potato is the Dioscorea Batatas, or White Yam, a long cylindrical root which 
has been recently introduced into England.—L. 
X I believe what is intended is a thin diagonal slice, common in the shops, and which I used 
buy. It might, by a lively imagination, be likened to an ox tongue. The others are trans¬ 
verse slices.—L. 
§ The best rhubarb is Sz-chuen. The others, and especially that cf Kiang-su, are called 
local, which implies inferiority.—L. 
VOL. VII. 
