Rheum rhabarbarum - Rhubarb

Scientific Name: Rheum undulatum, Rheum rhaponticum, Rheum rhababarum, Rheum officinale

Common Name: Rhubarb

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Primary Source References

1809 April 13. "Apr. 13. planted 32. seeds of the Mimosa Julibritzin ... in square II. beginning with the S.W. row sowed 1. row of rheum undulatum, esculent rhubarb. the leaves excellent as Spinach."^[1]

1811. "Rhubarb esculent" is listed in the items that were planted in 1811.^[2]

1825 December 21. (Robley Dunglison to Jefferson). "... six grains of Rhubarb with fifteen of Magnesia, every other night, in a little milk .... "^[3]

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Further Sources

Leighton, Ann. American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.

References

^ Betts, Garden Book, 385. On page 396, the note for this reference also says that rheum undulatum is probably "the same as Rheum rhaponticum L." For Jefferson's original manuscript, see Garden Book, 1766-1824, page 31, Thomas Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society).
^ Betts, Garden Book, 443. For Jefferson's original manuscript, see Garden Book, 1766-1824, page 42, Thomas Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society).
^ John M. Dorsey, ed., The Jefferson-Dunglison Letters (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1960), 48. Transcription available at Founders Online.

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