‘ 
} eee wen Lien a ne te en a th a ne 
' asparagus beds. 
what thickly, with the view of the plantlets 
of pastry, throughout the summer, even where 
fruits of every kind abound. Stalks of the red 
Goliah rhubarb have been known to measure 6 
inches in circumference and nearly 2 feet in 
length, so that only one of them was required for 
a pudding. So delicate and soft, too, is its tex- 
ture, that as soon as it arrives at the boiling 
point, it becomes a fine pulp, and is already suffi- 
ciently cooked. As a garden production for 
culinary purposes, it is certainly of much value; 
being in perfection precisely at that season when 
apples become tough and scarce, and before 
gooseberries have made their appearance. Its 
flavour is so delicate, that it ought not to be 
mixed with any other ingredient than sugar; 
and on no account should it ever be peeled. The 
eyes or buds of the red Golizh rhubarb have a 
deep rich red colour ; its leaves are of different 
hues of green; and its stalks have a green ground 
colour, spotted and streaked with red. Its leaves 
are of enormous size,—sometimes 4 feet long and 
33 wide; its roots also are gigantic,—so large 
that, in the course of 3 or 4 years, a single root, 
when dug up, would fill a wheel-barrow ; hence, 
the plants require a wide space,—say 5 feet every 
| way, or 5 feet by 6. Hither this hybrid or any 
other kind of culinary rhubarb may be propa- 
gated from seeds, or from young roots of one 
year’s growth, or from clean offsets with each 
two or three bold eyes. The soil should be rich, 
and may be prepared in the same way as for 
Seeds may be sown either some- 
being transplanted in a few weeks, or at wide 
_ distances and in regular rows, with the view of 
the plantlets being merely thinned out and al- 
lowed to remain permanently when raised. The 
sowing may be done in September or October, 
and the final thinning toward the close of the 
following summer; and intermediate cleanings 
and hoeings must be given in spring. Roots or 
offsets may be planted in March, in dry weather, 
in an open state of the ground, and during a 
temperate state of the atmosphere. Plants from 
vigorous roots may be available for use so early 
as 4 or 6 weeks after planting; but, generally, 
plants from offsets ought not to lose a stalk ora 
leaf, except by natural decay, till the following 
year. When the growth of transplanted rhu- 
barbs or of plants from offsets becomes estab- 
lished, the ground must be kept free from weeds; 
and if dry weather supervene, water ought to 
be given freely around the roots two or three 
times, at intervals of 4 or 5 days. In ordinary 
culture, nothing farther is done, except to man- 
ure the bed in autumn after the leaves have 
decayed,—and even the waterings in a time of 
drought are not attended to; but in more re- 
fined culture, some special methods are used for 
promoting luxuriance, succulency, flavour, and 
blanching. In autumn, the decayed leaves are 
laid in little trenches, formed along the centre 
of the spaces between the rows, sprinkled with a 
IV. 
| Sica 
a nn a 
RHUBARB. 
49 
handful or two of salt, and covered with the 
earth that had been dug out; as the winter ap- 
proaches, a coating of well-decomposed stable- 
manure or leaves, or a mixture of both, two or 
three inches deep, is laid round each plant to 
the extent of two feet; and in the open weather 
of February, or before the new growth appears, 
the whole bed is forked over, and a mimic mound, 
of drift sand, or of light porous earth, or of the 
soil in the central space between the rows, is 
formed to the thickness of a foot over each plant, 
—and this mound must be removed as soon as 
the season of pulling or of cutting ceases. When 
the red Goliah is gathered for use, the stalks 
should never be cut from the bed, but wrenched 
sideways with a sudden twist, and they will 
then come away entire from their junction with 
the root,—round, flat, clear, and as white as 
milk. As soon as the growth of rhubarbs of two 
or at most three years old becomes vigorous, the 
flower-stem begins to ascend from the root-crown 
of each plant; and this will readily be distin- 
guished from a leaf-stalk, and ought instantly 
to be pulled away, except from some one plant 
which is intended to produce seed; and this 
plant should be less gathered from than others, 
or not gathered from at all, during the season,— 
and must not by any means be subjected to the 
blanching or mound-covering method in spring. 
The seed should be gathered as soon as ripe; and 
care must be used that none of it be scattered 
over the beds; for young plantlets from it might 
grow up unobserved among the old plants, and 
greatly rob them of their spreading-room and 
nourishment. 
The foreign rhubarb root of the drug-shops is 
of two qualities,—the one from Russia and Tur- 
key, containing an excess of tannin, resin, and 
oxalate of lime,—the other from India or China, 
containing an excess of extractive matters and 
gallic acid,—and both, in addition to these prin- 
ciples, containing mucus, alumina, silica, gum, 
starch, lignin, albumen, and a colouring matter- | 
Good Russian or Turkey rhubarb has a peculiar 
sub-aromatic odour, and a bitter sub-acid, slightly 
astringent taste, and breaks with a rough frac- 
ture, and is easily pulverized, and affords a bright 
buff-yellow powder; and Indian or Chinese rhu- 
barb has a stronger odour and more disagreeable 
taste, and breaks with a smoother fracture, and 
affords a darker-coloured or more reddish pow- 
der. British rhubarb root, also, has been exten- 
sively brought into the drug market, and may 
be grown on any very rich soil of medium tex- 
ture, and taken up in the third or the fourth 
year from the time of sowing, and cut into 
pretty large pieces, and dried either in the sun 
or in specially constructed kilns; yet it is gen- 
erally found to be much inferior in quality to 
the foreign and imported rhubarb root; and it 
is supposed to owe its inferiority mainly or even 
entirely to the manner of drying it. “In Tar- 
tary,” we are told, “the roots are taken up 
