50 PRESENT STATUS OF THE INDUSTRY. 



of the causes that influence the production of male 

 plants should alone be sufficient spur to make growers 

 take careful observations. But the discovery may be 

 of still greater value after the decline of the exorbitant 

 prices for seed and plantlets when the business settles 

 from its present nursery basis to a basis founded upon 

 the market value of the dried root. 



To judge from the behavior of asparagus and 

 some other plants in which the staminate individuals 

 are more productive than the pistillate, or at least are 

 so claimed to be by growers, there is reason to believe 

 that the staminate ginseng plants might produce larger 

 roots than pistillate plants. It seems logical to con- 

 clude that the plant that bears a full crop of berries 

 should not at the same time produce a large root and 



FIG 15. MAP SHOWING THE NATURAL RANGE OF THE GINSENG 

 PLANT IN THE UNITED STATES 



also that the plant that does not produce berries should 

 direct its extra energies to increasing the size of its 

 root. At any rate, the matter is one well worth the 

 while of every grower to determine for himself. 



