MOSES MARSHALL 77 



day, about Juniata, the broad willow-leaved oak 

 and the red-berried elder." A careful entry was 

 made of everything interesting, and he speaks of 

 intending to bring home specimens of the horse- 

 chestnut tree. 



In 1786 Sir Joseph Banks wrote Humphry 

 Marshall, asking for one hundredweight of fresh 

 ginseng roots. Moses spent twenty days in the 

 Alleghanies getting these, and charged Lettsom 

 $1.25 a pound, not a high price, considering the 

 perils encountered; and uncle Humphry Mar- 

 shall lets Sir Joseph know that the ginseng had 

 been obtained at considerable expense, by telling 

 him that his nephew had had to " travel about 

 200 miles to the westward through a dismal 

 mountainous part of our country, as the ginseng 

 is either dug up for sale, or rooted up by the hogs, 

 so much that it begins to grow scarce in the hab- 

 itable parts He was likewise obliged to 



hire a person at a dollar a day to assist him in 

 digging said ginseng, both of them being obliged 

 to camp in the mountains, strike up a fire, and lie 



by it all night If thou thinkest [the 



price] too much, be pleased to pay what thou 

 thinkest would be a compensation." It is then 

 he asks if Moses could be employed by the Royal 

 Society. 1 



1 When I was a boy, the natives were still digging ginseng roots 

 in the Alleghany mountains of Pennsylvania and selling them at a 

 dollar a pound, and dreaming of the fortune to be made by a ginseng 

 farm. H. A. K. 



