gle of the Great Wall. It was at Suhchau that
Benedict Goes was detained, waiting for leave to go on to Peking, eighteen
weary months, and there he died just as aid reached him.

NOTE 3.--The real rhubarb [_Rheum palmatum_] grows wild, on very high
mountains. The central line of its distribution appears to be the high
range dividing the head waters of the Hwang-Ho, Yalung, and Min-Kiang. The
chief markets are Siningfu (see ch. lvii.), and Kwan-Kian in Szechwan. In
the latter province an inferior kind is grown in fields, but the genuine
rhubarb defies cultivation. (See _Richthofen_, Letters, No. VII. p. 69.)
Till recently it was almost all exported by Kiakhta and Russia, but some
now comes via Hankau and Shanghai.

["See, on the preparation of the root in China, Gemelli-Careri.
(_Churchill's Collect._, Bk. III. ch. v. 365.) It is said that when
Chinghiz Khan was pillaging Tangut, the only things his minister, Yeh-lue
Ch'u-ts'ai, would take as his share of the booty were a few Chinese books
and a supply of rhubarb, with which he saved the lives of a great number
of Mongols, when, a short time after, an epidemic broke out in the army."
(_D'Ohsson_, I. 372.--_Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 193, note.)

"With respect to rhubarb ... the _Suchowchi_ also makes the remark, that
the best rhubarb, with golden flowers in the breaking, is gathered in this
province (district of _Shan-tan_), and that it is equally beneficial to
men and beasts, preserving them from the pernicious effects of the heat."
(_Palladius_, l.c. p. 9.)--H. C.]

NOTE 4.--_Erba_ is the title applied to the poisonous growth, which may be
either "plant" or "grass." It is not unlikely that it was a plant akin to
the _Andromeda ovalifolia_, the tradition of the poisonous character of
which prevails everywhere along the Himalaya from Nepal to the Indus.

It is notorious for poisoning sheep and goats at Simla and other hill
sanitaria; and Dr. Cleghorn notes the same circumstance regarding it that
Polo heard of the plant in Tangut, viz. that its effects on flocks
imported from the plains are highly injurious, whilst those of the hills
do not appear to suffer, probably because they shun the young leaves,
which alone are deleterious. Mr. Marsh attests the like fact regarding the
_Kalmia angustifolia_ of New England, a plant of the same order
(_Ericaceae_). Sheep bred where it abounds almost always avoid browsing on
its leaves, whilst those brought from districts where it is u