206 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



firmed in the opinion I had long entertained, that 

 America had once been one and the same continent 

 with Asia, and that it was then united to Tartar y to 

 the north of China." 



When I had discovered the ginseng it occurred to 

 me that it might be a variety of mandragora, and I 

 had the pleasure of seeing that in this I was borne 

 out by Father Martini, who says ; " I cannot better 

 describe this root than by saying that it is very like 

 our mandragora, though a little smaller. It may be 

 one of the species of that plant. For myself, I have 

 not the slightest doubt that it has all the qualities and 

 the same virtues as that plant. In shape the two 

 plants are alike." 



If Father Martini was right in calling the gin- 

 seng a variety of mandragora because of its shape, he 

 was entirely wrong in calling it so on account of its 

 properties. The European mandragora is narcotic, 

 cooling and stupefying. These qualities are not at 

 all found united in ginseng, yet Father Martini's ideas 

 made me pursue my researches still further. I soon 

 found out that the mandragora of to-day is not the 

 plant so called by the ancients ; and I believe that in 

 examining the matter more closely and comparing 

 ginseng with what the ancients called mandragora, 

 we should find that the plant I discovered in Canada 

 was the actual anthropomorphos of Pythagoras and 

 the mandragora of Theophrastes. 



It is easy to imagine how the mandragora of the 

 ancients has been lost. In the first place it must 

 have been in great demand in early times on account 



