REPORT ON RHUBARB. 
17 
the variety which produces the article known in commerce 
as China Rhubarb, and valued in medicine for properties 
peculiar to it alone, and in consequence the specimen laid be- 
fore the Board may be the root of this plant, identical with 
that now cultivated in Europe, which may have been sent 
into the market to make up the deficiency of the supply of 
the genuine article, which for some time past has been re- 
ported scarce. 
It is generally supposed that we are still ignorant of the 
variety which produces the valuable article. Seivers, an 
apothecary, who was sent in 1790 to Bocharia, by the Rus- 
sian government to obtain that information, relates that af- 
ter four years travel he was unable to obtain any satisfac- 
tory results, and that no scientific person had at that time 
seen the true plant; he adds, 'all that is said by the Jesuits 
is miserable confused stuff, and all the seeds procured un- 
der its name are false; all the plantations we have will never 
yield true rhubarb, and I further declare that all the descrip- 
tions in all the Materia Medicas are incorrect.' 
From some experiments as to its aperient effects, the 
committee feel themselves authorized to say, that it probably 
is not more than one quarter as strong as good Canton rhu- 
barb, and as it makes a very handsome powder, they think 
the trade ought to be made acquainted with the fact of its 
being in the market, for very probably persons who wish to 
sell a low priced article will grind this root and offer it for 
sale under the assurance that it is real China Rhubarb, which 
assertion they would be enabled to make from the circum- 
stances before mentioned/' All of which is respectfully sub- 
mitted by your 
Committee of Inspection* 
2* 
