No. 71. PANAX. 



53 



central peduncle at the end, petioles swelled at the base 

 bearing five folioles, each also petiolated, (sometimes 

 only three, verj seldom seven,) unequal, smooth, with 

 some scattered bristles on the veins above ; the two 

 Jower ones very small oval acuminate, the three middle 

 ones larger, cuneiform or oblong, broader above, acumi- 

 nate; all ^vith shaip equal serratures, except at the 

 base ; flowers in a ^obose umbel, supported bj a cen- 

 tral erect peduncle, and a short involucrum, subu- 

 late; these flowers are small, with white petals; ovary 

 oval, adherent, with a five toothed calyx, and two styles 

 clavate recurved ; petals five, oval, oblong, obtuse; 

 five erect stamens, with round anthers; fruit, red ber- 

 ries, commonly bilobed, with two semi-globose seeds ; 

 sometimes only one style, and a dimidiate berry, or 

 three styles with a trilobe and three seeded berry ; some 

 flowers are abortive, or simply staminate, and some 

 plants produce only such with larger petals; calyx 

 nearly entire, &c. . '^ 



HISTORY. This plant is the famous Ginseng of the 

 Chinese, whose name, meaning man^s healthy has been 

 adopted in English and French. The Manchus call it 

 Orhota, meaning queen of plants. The Jesuits, who 

 had known this plant in Tartary, found it afterwards in 

 Canada,_ towards 1718, and a profitable trade was begun 

 with China, which has since undergone many fluctua- 

 tions. In 1748, the root sold over one dollar the lb- in ' 

 Canada, and nearly five dollars in China ; it has since 

 been reduced as low as twenty-five cents, and some 

 shipments to China have not paid the cost and duties. 

 The Chinese, who have many kinds of Ginseng, admit- 

 ted the American, but soon found out that it was an in- 

 ferior kind. The large yellow forked roots, and those 

 dried in their peculiar manner so as to be semi-transpa- 

 rent, were, and are yo^t^ the most saleable. Almost all 

 the botanists have admitted to this day, that the Ameri- 

 can and Chinese roots were produced by the same spe- 

 cies, Lourein was the first to doubt the iact, and I have 

 ascertained by a more close inspection of the Chinese 

 accounts and our plants, tliat they are at least distinct 

 varieties, if not peculiar species- Whoever will com- 

 pare the published figures may become convinced of 



£ 2 



