Amjui^87h6"m  }      Rhubarb  and  Rheum  Officinale.  3 1 1 
tion  whether  the  Rha  pontica,  Rha  coma  or  Rha  of  the  later  Latin 
writers  was  the  drug  of  to-day,  Professor  Fluckiger  does  not  deal  ;  but 
he  thinks  the  expression  Rheum  barbarwn  or  barbaricum,  first  appearing 
in  the  sixth  century,  certainly  relates  to  our  drug,  and  this  name  ap- 
pears to  have  gradually  supplanted  Rha  ponticum.  Probably  it  is  spoken 
of  in  the  great  geography  of  China,  "  Taithsing-i-thoring-tchi,"  when 
it  is  said  that  rhubarb,  u  tai*  hoang,"  a  product  of  the  province  of  Si- 
ning-fu  [east  of  the  Sea  of  Koko-nor,  already  mentioned,  in  the  pres- 
ent province  of  Kanzu],  was  admitted  into  Tangut  during  the  rule  of 
the  dynasty  of  Tang  as  tribute  from  the  Kouohtcheou  district.  This 
dynasty  ruled  from  A.D.  618  till  A.D.  905,  just  at  the  time  when  the 
name  Rha  barbarum  was  given  to  the  drug  in  Europe.  If  there  is  not  here 
strict  evidence  of  the  identity  of  the  Chinese  drug,  Tai-hoang,  /.  e.y 
the  great  yellow  [rootj,  with  Rha  barbarum,  the  author  thinks  there  is 
the  highest  probability. 
Esdrisi,  the  Arab  geographer  of  the  middle  ages,  in  his  u  Geogra- 
phy," written  in  11 54,  and  based  on  oral  communications  from  travel- 
ers and  the  literature  of  the  time,  says  of  a  certain  district,  "  It  is  also 
there  that  the  Chinese  rhubarb  grows,  and  the  root  is  found  there  in 
abundance  ;  it  is  exported  to  many  oriental  and  occidental  countries." 
The  district  indicated  was  the  mountains  near  Buthink,  where,  accord- 
ing to  Esdrisi's  account,  the  nardus  (Nardostachys  Jatamansi,  D.C.)also 
grew,  and  the  musk  deer  lived.  Professor  Sprenger  refers  the  notice 
to  the  district  lying  between  Hlassa  and  the  Tengri-nor,  the  great 
mountain- lake  of  Northeast  Thibet. 
w  Reubarbe "  is  found  entered  among  a  large  number  of  North 
Asiatic  and  Indian  products  in  the  customs  list  of  St.  Jean  d'Acre 
(11 73  to  1 183).  In  a  note  on  Marco  Polo's  Travels  (Leipzig,  1855), 
Biirk  speaks  of  entire  loads  which  the  Dschingiskhan  troops  met  with 
at  the  conquest  of  the  town  of  Lingtscheu  (or  Lant-scheu-feu),  east  of 
Sining  in  1227,  and  which  were  very  acceptable.  Wilhelm  von  Ruys- 
brock  (Rubruquis),  who,  in  1253  m  tne  seryice  of  King  Ludwig, 
reached  the  court  of  the  Mongol  Khan  Mangu,  found  there  u  reu- 
barba  "  in  frequent  use,  though  he  did  not  reach  further  than  the  Kara- 
korum  mountains.  Twenty  years  later,  the  famous  traveler  Marco 
Polo  pressed  much  further  eastward,  and  especially  among  other  places 
to  Tangut,  to  which  province  so  many  notices  on  rhubarb  refer  it.  In 
speaking  of  Suctur,  the  present  province  of  Kanzu,  Marco  Polo  says: 
