58 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1713. 



forests, that cover and encompass them, render ahnost unpassable. On the de- 

 clivities of these mountains, in the thick forests, on the banks of torrents, or 

 about the roots of trees, and amidst a thousand other different sorts of plants, 

 the ginseng is found. It is not to be met with in plains, valleys, marshes, the 

 bottoms of rivulets, or in places too much exposed and open. If the forest 

 take fire and be consumed, this plant does not appear till 2 or 3 years after: it 

 also lies hid from the sun as much as possible; which shows that heat is an 

 enemy to it. All which makes me believe, that if it is to be found in any 

 other country in the world, it may be particularly in Canada,* where the forests 

 and mountains, according to the relation of those that have lived there, very 

 much resemble these here. 



The places where the ginseng grows, are on every side separated from the 

 province of Quantong (which in our old maps is called Leaotum) by a barrier 

 of wooden stakes which encompasses this whole province, and about which 

 guards continually patrole, to hinder the Chinese from going out and looking 

 after this root. Yet vigilant as they are, their greediness after gain incites the 

 Chinese to lurk about privately in these deserts, sometimes to the number of 

 2 or 3000, at the hazard of losing their liberty and all the fruit of their labour, 

 if they are taken either in going or returning. 



The emperor, wishing that the Tartars should have the advantage of this 

 plant rather than the Chinese, gave orders this year, 1709, to 10,000 Tartars, 

 to go and gather all that they could of the ginseng, on condition that each 

 person should give his majesty 2 ounces of the best, and that the rest should 

 be paid for according to its weight in fine, silver. It was computed, that by 

 this means the emperor would get this year about 20,000 Chinese pounds of 

 it, which would not cost him above 4- part of its value. 



These herbarists carry with them neither tents nor beds, every one being 

 sufficiently loaded with his provision, which is only millet parched in an oven, 

 on which he must subsist all the time of his journey. So that they are con- 

 strained to sleep under trees, having only their branches and barks, if they can 

 find them, for their covering. Their mandarins send them from time to time 

 some pieces of beef, or such game as they happen to take, which they eat very 

 greedily and almost raw. In this manner these 10,000 men passed 6 months 

 of the year ; yet, notwithstanding their fatigues, continued lusty, and seemed 

 to be good soldiers. 



F'g- 9j P^- 2j represents the ginseng plant, a the root; which, when washed, 



» This conjecture has been verified. The ginseng plant has been found in Canada, Virginia, and 

 olher parts of North America. 



