32 
I have in vain endeavoured to preserve the young plants reared in the Honourable Company's Botanic Garden from 
roots and seeds sent down from Nipal. Like all other alpine productions, especially those which have a confined 
extent of growth, our plant is very impatient of controul, and soon perishes if removed into a climate not exactly 
resembling its own: it is therefore not likely that it will ever be induced to grow in Bengal. i 
The above description and observations have, with some slight modifications, been copied from an account of the 
plant presented by me to the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, and inserted in the fourth volume of the Trans- 
actions of that highly meritorious Body, which was printed after I left Bengal. Having since had the advantage of 
consulting North American specimens of Panax quinquefolius, Linn., in the Banksian Herbarium, gathered by Kalm 
and Bertram, and also those collected by my valued friend Dr. Boott, I am now convinced that the Nipal plant is 
another species, which may be distinguished by the marks indicated in the specific character, and further detailed in the 
observations I have given in the preceding pages. “The question as to the identity of the plant yielding the Ginseng 
root of China and the American Panax quinquefolius, appears still to be involved in much obscurity, notwithstanding 
all that has been written on the subject. My inestimable friend Mr. Brown has justly pointed out to me that the dis- 
covery of a species so nearly allied to that of North America as my Nipal plant unquestionably is, in a country the 
Flora of which greatly resembles that of the northern parts of China, adds at least to the probability of a similar plant 
being found there also. But without further entering into this subject, I may refer the reader to an interesting and 
condensed account of the Ginseng contained in the North American Botany, and to the articles Ginseng, Ninsi, and 
Sium Sisarum, in Rees's Cyclopædia. 
Plate CXXXVII. represents two individuals, one in flower, and the other in fruit, exhibiting some of the modifications both in the 
leaves and inflorescence. By an omission the leaves have not been shown conspicuously hairy on the upper surface, as they generally 
are. Fig. 1.2. Flowers. 3. The same, dissected. 4. 5. Ovary, opened. 6. 7. Berry. 8. A berry, divided horizontally. 
9. 10. Seed. 11. 12. The same, opened. 13. A detached root of the ordinary shape, with one of the tubers cut across in the middle 
show the internal colour and structure. 
SAUSSUREA GOSSYPINA. Tab. 138. 
Simrrex, clavæformis, densissimé gossypina; foliis linearibus, dentatis, sessilibus, basi imbricantibus; floribus 
intra apicem plantulæ nidulantibus, sessilibus, aggregatis, involucratis. 
Incolit alpes summas Himalayæ versus nivem perennem ad Gossain Than et Bhuddrinath, florens mense Augusti. 
Nomen monticolarum, Plaen-Comul. 
PLANTULA annua, erecta, simplex, 6—10-pollicaris, e basi pollicem duosve crassa sensim ampliata in formam clavatam, pugillum usque 
ad duos emetientem, apice obtusissimam et rotundatam, omninò vestita et quasi composita e lanugine alba, gossypina, longa, mollissima 
et densissima, persistente, ætate laxiuscula demümque hine indè in moles parvas secedente ; novella glabrior. Raprx longiuscula, perpen- 
dicularis, subfusiformis, simplex vel bifida, e basi pollicari deorsùm attenuata, glabra, fusca, intús alba et spongioso-carnosa ; fibre aliquot 
eylindraceæ, attenuate, carnose. (Cauurs indivisus, eylindricus, carnosus, striato-sulcatus, pollicem ad duos crassus, inanis, omninò 
foliis lanugineque occultus, intús repletus telà subtili, arachnoideà, candidà. Fori valdè approximata et numerosa, undique sparsa, 
erecta, 4—6-pollicaria, linearia, acuminata, acutè repando-dentata, deorsüm valdè attenuata, subpetiolata, basi latè, membranaceà sub- 
imbricantia, subcarnosa, utrinque densissimè lanuginosa, subtús costå prominulà; inferiora breviora, citius emarcescentia ; summa floribus 
proxima, cumque illis intra apicem plantulæ recondita, involucriformia, linearia, attenuato-acuminatissima, integerrima, 2-pollicaria, 
marginibus subtüsque longissimè plumoso-lanuginosa ; Juniora magis patula, sinuato-dentata, lætå viridia, subtús tomento brevi obsita. 
Frores plurimi, subcapitati, ad apicem caulis dilatatum, convexiusculum, foveolatum, 2-pollicarem dens? conferti, sessiles, subfastigiati, 
pallidè violacei, inodori, oblongi, unguiculares, unà cum foliis involucriformibus intra summitatem plantulæ prorsòs reconditi; exte- 
riores suffulti bracted lineari-lanceolatå, acuminatå, paulld longiore. InvoLucrum cylindricum, constans squamis pluribus, erectis, 
planis, imbricantibus, linearibus, acutis, serrulatis, argenteo-pallidis, aridis, nitentibus, apicem viridescentem versus parüm barbatis, 
cæteråm glabris, exterioribus brevioribus. Fuoscuur circiter 12, tubulosi, hermaphroditi, centrales vix elevatiores, involucro longiores, 
inserti receptaculo plano, villoso-scrobiculato, foveolis circumdatis denticulis albis, subulatis, erectis, inzequalibus. CorouLE tubus 
filiformis; limbus brevis, patens, divisus in lacinias 5, acutiusculas, lineares. FiLAMENTA capillacea; antheræ lineares, acute, basi in 
aristas 2, longas abientes, violaceæ, connexæ in tubum cylindricum, 5-dentatum, limbo paulló longiorem. Ovarium teres, glabrum, coro- 
natum pappo polyphyllo, tubum corollæ æquante, longissimè plumoso, fuscescente, extås decrescente : stylus filiformis, levis ; stigma 
exsertum, 2-lobum ; lobi oblongo-subelavati, obtusi, paròm divergentes, basi hinc puberuli. Semen cuneiforme, læve, nitidum, fuscum. 
So far back as in 1818 I received, through the kindness of the Honourable E. Gardner, specimens of this most 
curious little plant from Gossain Than, to which I alluded in a letter to Dr. Hamilton printed in the Edinburgh Philo- 
sophical Journal, vol. 1. p. 377. While in Nipal in 1820 and 1821, my people brought me specimens in a very fresh 
