Rhubarb is the root of a plant of the dock kind. From out the sheath of
the leaves rises a little bunch of flowers divided into many branches,
on which hang four blossoms, surrounded with leaves, and bearing a
triangular seed. The roots are long, and rather spungy, tolerably heavy,
yellowish on the outside, but within of the colour of a nutmeg,
variegated like marble, and of a sharp bitter taste. When eaten they
create nausea, and have an aromatic flavour. In divers parts of
Paraguay, especially in the mountains called La Cordillera, near the
city of Asumpcion, as well as at the banks of the rivers Ỹpane miri, and
Tapiraguaỹ, there grows a kind of rhubarb, similar to that of Alexandria
in colour, taste, smell, and virtue, but with this difference, that the
leaves of the Alexandrine rhubarb are pointed at the bottom, and broader
at the end; whereas the leaves of the Paraguayrian are wide at the
beginning, and terminate in a point, like the leaves of lilies. I
understand that the East Indian rhubarb, as well as that of Persia,
Muscovy, and Tartary, is preferred by physicians to that of America.