114 ugu 1749 



jiuguft fafjtii. Ginfeng is the current 

 French name in Canada, of a plant, the 

 root of which, has a very great value in 

 China*. It has been growing lince times 

 immemorial in the Chinefe Tartary and in 

 Corca, where it is annually collected and 

 brought to China. Father Du Halde fays, 

 it is the moft precious, and the moft ufeful 

 of all the plants in eaftern Tartary, and 

 attracts, every year, a number of people into 

 the deferts of that country. The Man- 

 techonx -Tar tars call it Orhota, that is the 

 rnoft noble, or the queen of plants*^. The 

 ^Tartars and Chinefe praife it very much, 

 and afcribe to it the power of curing feveral 

 dangerous difeafes, and that of reftoring to 

 the body new flrength, and fupplying the 

 lofs caufed by the exertion of the mental, 

 and corporeal faculties. An ounce of 

 Ginfeng bears the furprizing price of feven 

 or eight ounces of filver at Peking. When 

 the French botanifts in Canada firft faw a 

 figure of it, they remembered to have feen 



* Botanifts know this plant by the name of Panax quin- 

 quefclium, foliis ternatis quinatis LINN. Mat. Med. 116. 

 bp. plant, p. iq. 12. Gronov. Fl. Virg. p. 14,7. See like 

 wife Cate/by's Nat. Hiftof Carolina. Vol. III. p. 16. t. 16. 

 Laffitau Ginf. 51. t. i . Father Cfyarhwoix Hift. de la Nou- 

 feiie France. Tom. IV. p. 308. fig. XIII. and Tom. V. 

 p. 24. 



Qsfafk's voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 223. 



