Mrs. Red field" 1 s Chart of the Animal Kingdom. 46 7 



This new source of profit excited among the colonists so much, 

 cupidity, that in their haste, they gathered the roots at wrong 

 seasons of the year, and drying them without care, the value of 

 the product deteriorated, and it lost favour in the Chinese market, 

 so that in 1854 the exportation fell to 33,000 francs; and the 

 fallen credit of the Ginseng gave rise to a proverb still known 

 among our peasants, " Qa tombera comme le ginseng." Large 

 quantities of Ginseng are however still exported from the United 

 States, which in 1852 furnished 158,455 pounds, valued at 102,- 

 703 dollars; and, as the plant is still common in the Province, 

 there is no reason why it might not again become a source of 

 profit. 



The pamphlet before us was addressed by Lafitau to the Duke 

 of Orleans, then Regent of France, about the year 1718. It con- 

 tains a curious history of the Ginseng among the Chinese, as 

 gathered from the researches of pere Jartoux and others; an ac- 

 count of its discovery in Canada, and a minutely detailed descrip- 

 tion of the plant, with figures. To this succeeds a learned 

 disquisition upon the virtues of the plant, and an attempt to iden- 

 tify it with the mandragora of Theophrastus. This pamphlet had 

 become very rare; and Mr. Hospice Verreau, Principal of the 

 Jacques-Cartier Normal School, has had the good idea to reprint 

 the memoir, which he has enriched with interesting notes, to 

 which we are indebted for the above facts, prefacing it with a 

 biographical sketch of the pere Lafitau, one of those learned and 

 zealous apostles whose labours form a noble chapter in the early 

 history of Canada. After several years spent in this country, he 

 returned to France about 1718, and in 1724 published a learned 

 work, in two large volumes, with 41 plates, on the " Manners and 

 Customs of the North American Indians," in which he endea- 

 voured, by erudite and ingenious arguments, to prove their Pelasgic 

 origin. He also published in 1733 a History of the Portuguese 

 Conquests in America, in 4 vols. The Pere Lafitau died about 

 1740. An engraving, copied from a portrait of him preserved at 

 Sault St. Louis, forms the frontispiece to this curious and interest- 

 ing pamphlet. t. s. h. 



A General Vieio of the Animal Kingdom. By Mrs. A. M. Rsd- 

 field. New York : Ktdlog. Agent in Montreal : Mr. Telfer. 



Many attempts have been made to represent the arrangement 

 and forms of the Animal Kingdom on diagrams and charts for 



