May 28, 188?. 
THE GAKDENING WORLD 
617 
CONCERNING RHUBARB.* 
My desire is that this meeting form itself into a 
committee of selection and comparison, each one, even 
the humblest member, taking part and giving up to 
the many the benefit of his knowledge, experience and 
judgment. 
Name. — Botanically it is Rheum, pronounced 
“room” ( vide rheumatism). It is supposed to come 
from the word Rha or Rhu, the Russian name for the, 
river Volga, near which Rhubarb was first found ; 
therefore Rha—or Rhu—barbarum (as I shall shew in 
my historical notes) abbreviated soon made it Rhabarb 
or Rhubarb. 
Ingeniously we might 
trace it to Rheum (room); 
man with cold or dialectic, 
Rhub; a stammerer, Rhubub; 
a more precise man smart 
of speech, Rhubarb. Lan¬ 
cashire people say Rhoobub, 
Notts, Roobarb, and the 
Americans call it the Pie 
Plant. 
Choice of Subject. —My 
reasons for choosing this 
subject are simply these: 
firstly, only an old gardener 
would have the courage to 
choose so lowly a subject; 
and, secondly, my ex¬ 
perience tells me that gar¬ 
deners as a body know less 
about Rhubarb than they do 
about almost any other thing 
that comes under their care. 
Some pooh-pooh it as a 
thing beneath notice ; some 
dismiss it with a sneer; 
some just tolerate it, and in 
various ways it is treated 
with undeserved contumely. 
I arrived at this conclusion, 
partly because of my own 
knowledge — or want of 
knowledge rather, for I am 
measuring a peck out of my 
own sack—and partly and 
chiefly, perhaps, because of 
the ignoble place in the 
garden in which nine times 
out of ten I see it growing. 
I put it to you individually : 
Do we not now find it in the 
majority of instances thrust 
into some out-of-the-way 
corner—“Any where, any 
where out of the way,” as 
if it had received from the 
gardener a contemptuous 
kick, with the exclamation, 
‘ ‘ Get there, that is good 
enough for you” ? I desire, 
therefore, at the outset of 
my remarks to accentuate 
my previous declaration of 
ignorance, and to say that I 
lay no claim now to any 
special knowledge about 
Rhubarb—no knowledge, 
indeed, save that which has 
been thrust upon me by 
the circumstances of my 
life, these having compelled 
me to know or find out 
something about it. The 
demands upon me were heavy and continuous, and 
have always gone on a particular line for a special sort 
of Rhubarb—namely, that with colour in it. “We 
want that red Rhubarb, the redder the better” was the 
cook’s daily cry, so in order to satisfy that cry I have 
made the discovery that Rhubarbs are very confused as 
to varieties and naming, and that a deal of good garden 
ground is occupied with very common almost worthless 
sorts, which might grow the best. 
My object, therefore, is to call attention to Rhubarb 
generally, and to varieties specially ; and, if possible, 
to awaken interest in a really useful plant, to ad¬ 
* A paper read before the Notts Horticultural and Botanical 
Society, on June 9th, 1886, by Mr. H. N. Pownall. 
vocate a better state of cultivation by speaking about 
varieties myself first, and then getting each grower to 
speak as to his likes and dislikes, to compare the 
varieties we know are best, and what varieties are true 
to name, for we shall find as we proceed that there is a 
great amount of confusion in this respect. I shall have 
something more to say on this head further on. 
History, General.— Rhubarb is mentioned by 
Dioscorides, a botanist of Ancient Greece, as being 
brought from beyond the Bosphorus ; and Pliny, very 
early in the first century, also mentions it as a plant 
which, he says, was brought from beyond Pontus. It 
Spiraia aruncus astilboides. 
is a native of south-east Thibet, and the north-west 
and west frontiers of China ; is said to be mentioned 
by Chinese writers 2,700 B. c. The Rha, which came 
into Europe by the ancient caravan routes from north 
China by Bokhara and Asia Minor, was naturally 
called Rha-ponticum, and that by Russia and the 
Danube, Rhu-barbarum—hence the names —-pontic and 
barbarum to Rhu soon made Rhubarb. 
We cannot go into the medicinal Rhubarbs. Orna¬ 
mental ones we must not pass over without a word, 
because they figure so largely in sub-tropical gardening. 
Some of these are Rheum Emodi, R. officinale, R. 
palmatum tanguticum and R. nobile. The latter is 
the typical ornamental species, still but little known 
in gardens. It is said by Sir J. D. Hooker to be the 
handsomest plant in Sikkim. 
This is what he says of it in his journal : — “ On the 
black rocks the gigantic R. nobile forms pyramidal 
towers, a yard or more high, of inflated bracts that 
conceal the flowers, overlapping one another like trees 
to protect them from the wind and the rain. A whorl 
of broad green leaves edged with red spreads on the 
ground at the base of the plant, contrasting in colour 
with the transparent bracts, which are yellow, margined 
with pink.” 
Rhubarb was introduced into Britain by Dr. 
Fothergill, about 1788, and 
was first cultivated by a 
society of herbarists at 
Norwich, but a good many 
years elapsed before it was 
taken up by others. About 
1820 the late Mr. Myatt, 
of Deptford, sent it first of 
all into Covent Garden 
Market. As an experiment 
he tied up six bundles and 
sent his son to market with 
them. He easily sold three. 
He tried again, however, 
sending ten, which were all 
sold ; and so little by little 
the sale grew until now it 
would be difficult to say 
how many thousands of tons 
are sold of it all over the 
country every week in the 
season. 
The cultivated kinds are 
seedling variations, from R. 
rhaponticum, R. undulatum 
and R. australe. 
Cultivation. —The culti¬ 
vation of Rhubarb may be 
dismissed in a few words. 
Roughly speaking, it is 
said, “the more muck the 
more Rhubarb.” An open 
position, on good deeply 
dug and newly manured 
land, and the crowns planted 
in spring 3 ft. to 4 ft. apart 
every way, is nearly all that 
need be said as to its 
cultivation. 
Pulling. — The pulling 
of Rhubarb wants much 
judgment. For house pur¬ 
poses it should never be 
pulled after the crimp goes 
out of the young leaf; for 
market purposes the demand 
governs the pulling as well 
as the supply. As a rule it 
is often pulled when too 
old. In this case every 
man must study his require¬ 
ments and act accordingly. 
Early Varieties. 
Hawke’s Champagne 
was raised by Mr. Hawkes, 
market gardener, Deptford, 
some twenty or twenty-five 
years ago. It was grown 
locally for some time, and 
Mr. Gilbert, of Burghley, was 
the first to call public atten¬ 
tion to its merits. I remem¬ 
ber he said that it was given to him by his late master 
Mr. Wm. Myatt, of Deptford. The Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society gave it a First Class Certificate in 1884, 
and only one or two trade houses at that time had it in 
stock. It is early—the earliest to my knowledge, 
having gathered it the second week in April. It is red 
all through, crisp, juicy, and excellent in flavour—the 
cook’s favourite, and always in demand. It is not 
large, but for household purposes large enough—the 
ideal Rhubarb. It will force well, and is all red 
through, and delicate. 
Buck’s Early Red, or Pontic, is small, downy, red, 
and of good flavour. It was raised by Mr. Wm. Buck, 
of Elford, Lichfield, in 1754, and is now dying out. 
