378 GROWTH AND PREPARATION OF RHUBARB IN CHINA. 
Description of the Plant. —The root resembles that of the Chinese potato, 
or white yam ( Dioscorea Batatas). It is from one to two feet long, and thick 
enough to be used as a pillow. It is covered with a black skin, is soft and 
moish and contains a yellowish sap. The plant puts forth its leaves in the 
first or second month. The unexpanded leaves of the Sz-chuen plant in the 
second month, are of a deep yellowish colour ; those of the Shen-si plant, in 
the first month, are green, as large as a fan, and resemble those of the Pima 
(.Bicinus communis , Linn.). Kung describes the rhubarb leaf as coarse, long, 
and thick. In Sz-chuen, the stem is more than 3 feet high in the second 
month. According to Lung, who does not mention the locality, the stem at¬ 
tains the height of 6 or 7 feet, and is red, crisp, sour, and eatable in its raw 
state. In the third or fourth month it opens its yellow flowers, which are 
succeeded in the fifth month by a black seed (nut). The root leaf and stalk 
of rhubarb, according to Kung, resemble those of the Yang-ti plant. This 
writer says that the root is red, but, in other respects, his description of it ac¬ 
cords with that of the other writers. 
Preparation and Drying of the Root. —The root is.taken up in the second 
or eighth month, and the black skin which covers it is removed. It is then 
cut in slices, either longitudinally, as in Sz-chuen, or transversely, as in 
Shen-si and elsewhere, and dried in the shade with or without artificial heat. 
The following mode of drying is said to be the best:—a stone is heated, and 
the roots, cut in transverse slices about an inch thick, are placed upon it. J3y 
this means the pieces are partly dried. A hole is then made in each, and the 
pieces are strung on a cord, and suspended in the shade until they are per¬ 
fectly dry and fit for the market. 
Quality .—The rhubarb ( Imang) which grows in Shen-si, Kansuh, and 
in the west of Sz-chuen, is all of good quality. That which grows in Shan-si, 
Chil-li, and other places to the north of these, is smaller, and not equal in 
strength to that of Sz-chuen. In Sz-chuen, however, the quality appears to 
vary,"that which grows in the west and is dried in the shade being better 
than that which is dried in the sun in the north of the same province ; while 
that which is dried by artificial heat is said to be slightly charred. Tau- 
hung-king, who makes the foregoing remark, adds that Sz-chuen rhubarb is 
not equal in quality to that of Lung-si in Shen-si; that it is black in colour, 
and very bitter. This, however, is altogether denied by Kung. Su-sung 
also say's that Sz-chuen rhubarb is fine-grained, and next pomes that of Shen¬ 
si. He adds, however, that the value of these two kinds is the same. Sung- 
ki, who lived between a.d. 1000 and 1270, says that in his time Lung-si 
(Shen-si) rhubarb was considered the best. 
Notwithstanding the want of precision and agreement in the above state¬ 
ments, I think that, taken in connection with the extracts from ‘ The Eules 
of the Drug Trade in China’ and from ‘ The Chinese Commercial Guide,’ they 
will warrant the following— 
Conclusions. 
1. Kliubarb grows in many parts of the Chinese empire, but chiefly in 
Kan-suh south of Mongolia, about Ko-ko-nor, and on the Kwan-lun moun¬ 
tains, which form the northern boundary of Thibet; and also in the provinces 
of Shen-si, Shan-si, Ho-nan, and Sz-chuen. From the former districts the 
dried root reaches Europe at present by way of Moscow ; from the latter 
it is conveyed along the Yellow and Yang-tse rivers to the ports of Shanghai 
and Hankow. 
2. The descriptions of the plant are not sufficiently precise to show whe¬ 
ther the roots of only one, or of more than one species are collected for me- 
