RHODYMENIA JUBATA. Gree. One of the sea-weeds, a genus of the order Cerainiacem. RHUBARB, Rheum radix.
Rewund Sint,. AR., PEns. lteon, . . . Gn. of Dios. Ta-liwang, . . CHIN. newundchint, . HIND.
llwang-liang,. . „ Itewen , Rua.
Ilo-san,. . . „ Variattu kalangu, TAY. Taiwan, .
The rhubarb of commerce is obtained frotn a wide extent of country, from IAdakh, in long. 77i° E., to the Chinese province of Shen-si, 29 degrees farther east, and it receives distinguishing names according to the country from which it is exported. The names given to it by the European nations are modifications of rhubarb. About 50 tons are annually imported into Britain.
The Turkey rhubarb of commerce is called also Russian rhubarb, but in Russia is called Chinese rhubarb ; it is imported into the frontier town of Kiachta, thence into Moscow and St. Peters burg, whence it is distributed to the rest of Europe.
Bncharian rhubarb makes its way to Vienna by Brody and Nischny, and is supposed to be the inferior sorts of Turkey rhubarb.
Chinese rhubarb, called also East India rhubarb, is produced i u the mountains of Kan-su, but c,omes 'into the rnarket in the three forms of Dutch trimmed or Batavian rhubarb, half-trimmed or Chinese rhubarb, and Canton stick rhubarb.
Siberian rhubarb, called also Siberian rhapontic root, is supposed to be the product of R. rhapon ticum.
Hinialayan rhubarb is a product yielded by R. Moorcroftianum, Boyle, by R. Webbianum, Royle, and R. spiciforme, Royle. A variety of rhubarb, termed riwash, is more or plentiful in all the hills from Kalat in Baluchistan to Kandahar, and again from that place to Kabul. Attention is paid to its growth only by the inhabitants of Luglimati, who supply the banrs of the city of Kabul. They surround the choicer plants with conical coverings of stones, so as to exclude light and air, and thereby produce that whiteness of stem so much prized. The unblancliecl plant is
called chukri, and is also exposed to sale. It makes an excellent preserve, by being first satur ated in a solution of lime and then boiled with shirar,.or the inspissated juice of grapes, losing, however, in this ease, its characteristic flavour. Rhubarb grows in abundance and to a large size in Barmor, and the valley through which the Ravi and its tributaries flow before reaching Dalhousie. A smaller variety, deemed by the natives to be superior in quality, grows in the crevices of the gneiss rocks forming the peaks above Dharmsala. The common dock, Rumex obtusifolius, is not 80 conspicuous in the waste places of a highland glen as is the officinal rhubarb on the bare rocks in the valley of Asmng. It extends five or six miles down the valley, and aacends the slope to 500 feet above the river's lxd. Captian Houchen and the Lama of Asrang said that it is equally abundant in the adjoining valley of Dingering. The following are four Himalayan species :—R. emodi, TVall., Pindree glacier, etc. ; B. Webbianum, Royle, Chur mountain ; R. spiciforme, Royle, Werang pass ; R. Moorcroftianum, Royle, Niti pass, and yield part of the Himalayan rhubarb. The Pen-ts'au, a Chinese work on medicines, places rhubarb at the very head of poisonous plants, and undoubtedly Chinese rhubarb, in China, is a very poisonous drug, causing severe purging and some prostration. It grows in Kink-chau-fu, in Hu-peh-li ; Sui-teh chau, in the N.E. of Shen-si ; Lung-si-hien, in Kan-suh ; Mau-chau and Ching-tu-fu, in Sze-chuen. —Voigt ; Smith's Mat. Med. .