NOTICES OF SOME RARE KINDS OF RHUBARB. 65 
Pharmacopeia Eossica, for 1798, was denominated Radix 
Eharbarbi sibirici. 
I have received from Mr. Faber a sample of a rhubarb 
which was sent to him in 1840 by a first-rate drug-house at 
St. Petersburgh, under the name of Bucharian rhubarb, 
and which, he has been subsequently assured, is the genu- 
ine Bucharian kind. Some friends of his at Vienna have 
written to him respecting it as follows : " We now very 
seldom see Bucharian rhubarb. It used formerly to be 
brought by Jews into Brody (Gallicia) by the way of Rus- 
sia, and the Jews of Brody used to supply Germans with 
it. But the quality being very inferior, and not better than 
European rhubarb, it did not probably answer." 
This kind of rhubarb is intermediate, between the Chi- 
nese and Russian or Muscovite rhubarb, but is of inferior 
quality. The pieces are, more or less, rounded or flattened, 
and weigh from one to two ounces each. Some of them 
appear to have been deprived of their cortical portion by 
scraping, as in the Chinese rhubarb ; but in others the cor- 
tex has been removed by slicing. Most of them are per- 
forated by a hole apparently for the purpose of drying them; 
but in none of the holes are there any remains of the cord 
used in suspending the roots. The holes, moreover, appear 
to have been cleaned out, as in the Russian rhubarb, for no 
portion of decayed rhubarb is seen in them. Some of the 
pieces are dense, but most of them are lighter than good 
Russian rhubarb. Internally, they are often decayed and 
dark coloured. Their texture is similar to that of genuine 
rhubarb. The odour also is like that of rhubarb, but much 
feebler; the taste is bitter and astringent. When chewed, 
this rhubarb feels gritty under the teeth. Its colour is darker 
than that of good Russian rhubarb. 
Altogether its resemblance is sufficiently great to the 
Russian rhubarb to induce me to believe that i(, like the 
latter, is really the growth of the same part of Asia, and 
probably of the same plant. Calau, an Apothecary in the 
6 # 
