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Show 404 RHUBARB. duced the rheum palmatum; and I have some of the doctor’s original packet still by me. It appears that the seeds sent from St. Petersburgh to this country almost uniformly and constantly produce the rheum palmatum, and not sometimes rheum undulatum also, as De Gorter relates the seeds to. have done which Boerhaave obtained from the Tartarian merchant, This, however, does not prove that other species, as the undulatum, and even the compactum (the thick-leaved rhubarb), do not yield the true rhubarb, as well as the palmatum. Wehave seen that the undulatum was sent from Tartary with the palmatum for the genuine plant; and Georgi relates that a Cossack pointed out the same species to him for the true rhubarb. Both he and Pallas remark,that possibly the root of rheum undulatum maybebetter on the more southern open and dry mountains of Tibet than on the colder wet mountains of Siberia. Professor Pallas relates, that in Bukharia the rheum palmatum seems to be unknown, and that, as far as he could collect from description, the species they consider there as the true one is the compactum, the seeds of which, Mr. Miller informs us, were sent to him from St. Petersburgh as the true Tartarian rhubarb. Since the true Russian rhubarb was introduced byDr. Mounsey in the year 1762, or soon after, and wascultivated by Sir Alexander Dick and Dr. Hope of Edinburgh, with a view to bring it into use as a medicine, it has been a question whether the root could attain the same qualities in our climate that it has where it is a native. That Britain is not too cold for it appears clearly from the success with which it has been cultivated in Scotland ; if it meets with any difficulty here, it must be from the moisture of our climate, and there can be no doubt but that a dry soil Should be chosen for it. The chief obstruction to giving the root here a quality equal to foreign rhubarb, appears to be the difficulty of curing it properly ; but this is in a great measure got over, and no doubt will be fully conquered by further ex- perience, if encouragement should be given to the more extensive cultivation at home of this most useful plant. And surely rhubarb merits some encouragement, if it be true that not less than 200,0001. is paid annually for what is imported into this country ; especially if we consider the difficulty there may be of procuring this article from Russia, the inferiority of the Chinese rhubarb, and the adulterations that are practised to render the foreign drug fair to the eye. There remains only te RHUBARB. A05 convince our countrymen that British rhubarb is equal to the foreign; or, if it be a little inferior, that infériority is owing merely to a want of skill in curing it, which skill will soon be attained by experience. The late excellent Dr. Hope, who with Sir Alexander Dick was indefatigable in cultivating the rheum palmatum for medical use, relates, in the year 1784, that most of the apothecaries in Edinburgh used no other than whatis raised in Scotland ; that for several years there has been no other employed in the Royal Infirmary ; and that when a sound root is well dried and properly dressed, it is in no respect inferior to what comes from Russia. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce has exerted itself for many years in promoting:the cultivation of the rheum palmatum in Great Britain, and with much success. Sir John Dick had the gold medal of the Society for a memoir on the culture and drying of it. Sir William Fordyce, so early as the year 1780, took up three roots, six years old, weighing when washed ten pounds six ounces avoirdupois. Hestripped off the bark from the smaller roots, and cut off most of it from the larger parts; and hung them up in festoons on packthread, three or four inches from each other, at a moderate distance from the fire. From these roots he made one pound four ounces of rhubarb, as fit for the market as any imported from Russia, Turkey, or China: he obtained likewise one pound more,fit for private use, or to be powdered. ‘The roots should be cleared entirely of the rind, for the parts which are covered with it will be apt to turn mouldy. Large pieces should have a perforation made through the middle, that they may dry more perfectly, with less fuel and in Jess time. At the end of six or seven years, when the plant seems to arrive at its most perfect state, one pound of rhubarb may be obtained from everyfive pounds of the green roots, besides an equal or larger proportion of roots fit for family use, or powder in the shops. In 1791 the gold medal of the Society was given to this gentleman for raising above three hundred plants of the true rhubarb from seed, and transplanting them at fourfeet distance. Nathaniel Jarman, esq. of Brenley House, in Kent, sowed sixty seeds, being part of those which were sent to the Society by Dr. Mounsey in 1764: they produced forty-five plants. In |