Prof. Asa Gray on Sequoia and its History. 63 



which are duplicated on the other side of the world, either in 

 identical or almost identical species, or in an analogous species, 

 while nothing else of the kind is known in any other part of 

 the world. 



I ought not to omit ginseng, the root so prized by the Chi- 

 nese, which they obtained from their northern provinces and 

 Mandchuria, and which is now known to inhabit Corea and 

 Northern Japan. The Jesuit Fathers identified the plant 

 in Canada and the Atlantic States, brought over the Chinese 

 name by which we know it, and established the trade in it, 

 which was for many years most profitable. The exporta- 

 tion of ginseng to China has probably not yet entirely ceased. 

 Whether the Asiatic and the Atlantic American ginsengs are 

 exactly of the same species or not is somewhat uncertain ; but 

 they are hardly if at all distinguishable. 



There is a shrub, Elliottia^ which is so rare and local that 

 it is known only at two stations on the Savannah river in 

 Georgia. It is of peculiar structure, and was without near 

 relative until one was lately discovered in Japan (in Tripeta- 

 leia) so like it as hardly to be distinguishable except by having 

 the parts of the blossom in threes instead of fours, a difference 

 which is not uncommon in the same genus or even in the 

 same species. 



Suppose ElUottia had hajDpened to be collected only once, a 

 good while ago, and all knowledge of the limited and obscure 

 locality was lost ; and meanwhile the Japanese form came to 

 be known. Such a case would be parallel with an actual one. 

 A specimen of a peculiar plant, Shortia galacifolia^ was de- 

 tected in the herbarium of the elder Michaux, who collected it 

 (as his autograph ticket shows) somewhere in the high Alle- 

 ghany mountains more than eighty years ago. No one has 

 seen the living plant since, or knows where to find it, if haply 

 it still flourishes in some secluded spot. At' length it is found 

 in Japan ; and I had the satisfaction of making the identifica- 

 tion*. One other relative is also known in Japan ; and an- 

 other, still unpublished, has just been detected in Thibet. 



Whether the Japanese and the Alleghanian plants are ex- 

 actly the same or not, it needs complete specimens of the two 

 to settle. So far as we know they are just alike. And even 

 if some difference were discerned between them, it would not 

 appreciably alter the question as to how such a result came to 

 pass. Each and every one of the analogous cases I have 

 been detailing (and very many more could be mentioned) 

 raises the same question and would be satisfied with the same 

 answer. 

 * Amer. Jouin. Scieuce, 18G7, p. 402 ; Proc. Amer. Acad. viii. p. 244. 



