ON  THE  KINDS  OF  RHUBARB  IN  RUSSIAN  COMMERCE.  215 
the  English  at  the  borders  of  the  East  Indies,  the  latter,  like 
Russia  now,  do  not  obtain  their  rhubarb  from  those  districts. 
Of  late  years  a  continually  increasing  trade  in  rhubarb  has 
sprung  up  from  Bucharia  to  Russia,  the  root  being  probably 
brought  by  Tartarian  merchants  to  the  Caspian  Sea  and  from 
thence  up  the  Wolga  to  the  fair  at  Nishni-Nowgorod ;  but 
nothing  definite  could  be  ascertained,  notwithstanding  the  most 
diligent  inquiries.  From  Nishni-Nowgorod  this  rhubarb  is 
transported,  chiefly  by  Jews,  partly  to  Moscow  and  St.  Peters- 
burg, for  the  greatest  part  to  White-Russia  and  Poland,  even  to 
Galicia  and  occasionally  to  Vienna. 
As  observed  before,  the  descriptions  of  this  root  as  given  by 
(jrassmann,  Pereira  and  others  agree  very  little  amongst  them- 
selves and  with  the  present  commercial  kind ;  its  appearance, 
however,  is  sufficient  to  refute  the  assumption  that  it  was  grown 
in  the  same  soil  as  the  true  Moscovitic ;  and,  indeed,  the  infor- 
mation which  we  are  enabled  to  obtain  here  in  Russia  points  to 
its  cultivation  in  Bucharia. 
Above,  I  believe,  I  have  given  the  points  which  would  suggest 
a  ready  nomenclature  for  the  commercial  varieties  of  rhubarb 
root.  Starting  from  the  view  that  the  former  Russian  crown 
rhubarb  grows  in  a  rather  confined  locality,  accessible  only  to  the 
Bucharians,  and  that  its  importation  has  entirely  ceased,  I  pro- 
pose to  retain  for  it  the  name  of  Moscovitic  or  crown  rhubarb, 
by  which  it  has  been  known  for  a  long  time.  The  name  of 
North-Chinese  rhubarb  is  proposed  for  the  rhubarb  which  is  ex- 
ported from  other  parts  of  China  northwardly  to  Siberia.  (The 
term  "Siberian  rhubarb"  ought  to  be  retained  for  that  root 
which  was  for  some  time  cultivated  in  Siberia.)  South-Chinese 
or  Canton  rhubarb  would  then  be  applied  to  what  is  exported  by 
way  of  the  East  Indies,  and  the  root  which  comes  from  Bucharia 
to  the  Caspian  Sea  and  to  Nishni-Nowgorod  would  have  to  be 
called  Bucharian  rhubarb.  This  latter  term  would  have  to  be 
discarded  as  synonymous  with  Moscovitic  rhubarb,  in  which 
connection  it  was  formerly  sometimes  used,  because  the  true 
crown  rhubarb  was  obtained  through  Bucharian  merchants. 
The  following  contains  the  characteristics  of  these  different 
kinds : 
