to the Mongols as the Shara-moto,[1] and to the Tangutans as Djumtsa. As it has not yet been studied by European naturalists in its native country, I will describe it at some length.[2]
It has three or four large dark green leaves[3] near the root, from the centre of which springs the flower-stalk to a height of seven to ten feet, with a thickness of one-and-a-half inch near the ground.[4] Old plants have ten or more leaves, but the flower-stalks are in such case more numerous, the proportion of leaves being invariably three or four to each. The section of leaf-stalk is oval, about the thickness of a finger; the length of the leaf being twenty-six inches, colour underneath green, above reddish, covered with fine reddish hairs one-fifth of an inch long. The flower-stalk throws out a few small leaves at its joints, and the small white flowers are set on a second stalk branching from the main stem two-thirds of its height from the ground.
The root is cylindrical with a number of slender offsets,[5] the length and number of which depend on the age of the plant. When full grown the root is
- ↑ I.e. yellow tree.
- ↑ Compare this and the following paragraphs with Marco Polo, speaking of the same region: 'Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is found in great abundance, and thither merchants come to buy it, and carry it thence all over the world. Travellers, however, dare not visit these mountains with any cattle but those of the country, for a certain plant (erba) grows there, which is so poisonous that cattle which eat it lose their hoofs.' (2d. ed., i. 219). — Y.
- ↑ The largest leaf we measured was two feet long by three broad.
- ↑ These are the dimensions of a full-grown plant.
- ↑ Old roots have as many as twenty-five offsets, the largest being 1½ in. in diameter, with a length of 21 inches.
