May II, 1S92.] 



Garden and Forest. 



223 



have previously referred, the Chorizemas, Pimelias, espe- 

 cially P. Nieppergiana and P. spectabilis, the latter a 

 charming pot-plant, with many branches, every one 

 terminated by a head of creamy white flowers as large as 

 a crown-piece. Pultenoea flexilis is a bush, eight feet high 

 and as many across, with branches most elegant and 

 ■graceful, the whole so thickly studded with bright yellow 

 pea-like flowers as to suggest a cloud. This is planted out 

 in a peat-bed, and I know of no shrub, indoors or out, 

 that surpasses it. Close to it is a large bush of the allied 

 Eutaxia myrtifolia and another of Aotus gracillima, whose 

 long wand-like branches, clothed with yellow and brown 

 flowers, are a delightful feature. The white orange-like 

 flowers of the various Eriostemons, the elegant, brightly 

 colored Epacris, and the white star-like flowers, of the 

 graceful Leptospermums, with the rosy bells of Baucria 

 Tubioides, are all such as arrest attention and win general 

 admiration. The brilliant Boronia heterophylla, grandest 

 of all Boronias, is now worth going a long way to see. 

 These, and many others which one might mention, are 

 first-rate garden-plants when well grown, far more attrac- 

 tive in every vva\' than hosts of the things which are in 

 general favor. 



Peat, plenty of sunshine and air, with the exclusion of 

 cold and damp in winter, are the principal factors in the 

 production of good specimens of hard-wooded plants for 

 the greenhouse, such as those mentioned above. 



Lond.in. W. Wa/SOft. 



Cultural Department. 



The Cultivation of Ginseng. 



THERE was a touch of pathos in a remark I heard from a 

 farmer's wife while rambling over the hills of Cortland 

 County, New York, in quest of Ginseng. " It is a shame," said 

 she, " that Ginseng is so hunted and stolen from our forests 

 that we can hardly find a root for our own use." From Min- 

 nesota to Carolina the gathering has been carried on until in 

 the places where this beautiful plant was once so abundant 

 that one could hardly step without treading on it, only single 

 roots can now be found. It is only a question of time when 

 Ginseng, at tlie present rate of destruction, will be utterly exter- 

 minated from our forests. Last year more of the root was 

 exported to China from this country by 80,000 pounds than 

 was ever sent before in any single year, and notwithstanding 

 the growing scarcity there are ten persons hunting for the 

 roots now where there was one ten years ago. From early 

 spring to late fall the Ginseng-hunter toils with his bag and 

 spud through tangles of brush and brier, his day's labor often 

 rewarded with only a few ounces of roots, while a more for- 

 tunate chance may give him as many pounds some other day. 

 The hunt has been greatly stimulated by recent high prices, 

 and there is, too, a fascination about the quest which is only 

 known to those who engage in it. 



Ginseng is one of the most beautiful plants found in our for- 

 est. Its form is symmetrical, its foliage is delicate and its 

 seed-head is beautiful. It is often described as a fifteen- 

 leaved plant, but it has really from three to twenty-five 

 leaves, according to its age and vigor. In central and north- 

 ern New York it comes out of the ground about the first of 

 May. The leaves attain their full size in June. The blossoms 

 appear about the first of July, and are very small and 

 delicate, and under a magnifying - glass beautiful. The 

 berries develop rapidly, and are light green until the 20th 

 of August, when they commence to color; in Septem- 

 ber they are bright scarlet and make a very showy appear- 

 ance. A large, vigorous, twenty-leaved plant may have as 

 many as thirty or forty berries in a round compact ball on 

 a slender stem from four to six inches in length, each berry 

 containing from one to three hard rough seeds. The berries 

 are round and elongated or triangular in shape, according to 

 the number of seeds, and they are often as large as a small 

 bean, and are meaty and pleasant to the taste. They fall to 

 the ground soon after ripening and are covered by the falling 

 leaves. But since one covering of leaves would not suffice to 

 protect the delicate root as it first pushes from the seed, na- 

 ture provides that the germ in the little seed shall patiently 

 rest until another year has spread another covering of leaves over 

 it. Then, after the snows of a second winter have rested upon 

 the seeds and firmly imbedded them in their position, they 



awake from their sleep of eighteen months and send up a 

 small plantlet about two inches high, with three leaves, and a 

 root not larger the first season than a grain of wlieat. 



The plant grows slowly and attains a great age. Roots, 

 thirty or even fifty years old, often weigh less than one ounce, 

 and again they have been found weighing three and even six 

 or eight ounces, though not nearly as old. How do we know 

 the age ? By the notches on the neck of tlie root. The plant 

 keeps its own record, each year's growth adding to the length 

 of the neck and leaving a notch where the stalk falls off. As 

 tiie roots increase in age they assume strange and fantastic 

 forms, so that it requires but little imagination to see the 

 form of the human body in many of them. 



Ginseng also grows in China. In his Middle Kingdom Wil- 

 liams says, " It is found wild in the forests of Manciiuria, 

 where it is collected by detachmentsof soldiers detailed forthe 

 purpose. These regions are regarded as imperial preserves, 

 and the medicine is lield as a Government monopoly. The 

 importation of the American root does not interfere elsewhere 

 with the imperial sales, as the Cliinese are fully convinced that 

 tlieir plants are superior." The root has been exported to 

 China from this country for more than a hundred years. At 

 first it was bought of the Indians at $2.00 a bushel for green 

 roots. Within the last few years local dealers have paid as high 

 as $1.15 for a pound of green roots, while the dry root has sold 

 as high as $4.25 in New York. But for the foreign demand it 

 would not be worth more than five cents a pound here, and 

 our forests would soon be filled with the plant. It is some- 

 times sold for its weight in gold in China, and at other times for 

 its weight in silver, according to its supply and demand. A 

 single root having the form of the human body may bring 

 from $2.00 to $4.00. In the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter iov 

 May, 1889, it is said ; "An example of the cost of this medici- 

 nal root is afforded by a recent Pekin Gazette, which contains 

 a report from the Military Governor of Kirin, stating that he 

 has forwarded by special messenger for the Emperor's use 

 eight large and sixteen small roots weighing together nine and 

 four-tenths ounces. The total cost is given as 1,560 taels, or 

 about /400, lieing at the rate of ^45 an ounce." The Chinese 

 do not base their estimate of its value upon chemical analysis 

 of the root, but they reason that a root which attains such ex- 

 treme age and so resembles the human form must possess 

 supernatural power, and that therefore it is capable of impart- 

 ing its virtue to the human body ; hence if they eat such roots 

 they will ward off disease and prolong their lives to extreme 

 old age. 



It is the general opinion in this country that the plant cannot 

 be successtully cultivated. In 1891, while attending the State 

 Fair with an exhibit of Ginseng, I was told by more than a 

 hundred people that they had tried to cultivate the plant by 

 setting roots and sowing the seed, but that it never grew. And 

 this was my own experience at first. My first sowing of seed 

 did not produce a plant. Two hundred roots which I put into 

 the ground in 1886 made little growth the first year, and the 

 outlook was so unfavorable that 1 abandoned the business. In 

 1887 I put in some roots and sowed some seeds, and the next 

 year my plants made a better showing. I then commenced to 

 study the habits and characteristics of the plant, and, with the 

 experience gained, my success has been complete. I had 

 thousands of fine plants growing on my ground in 1891. Many 

 roots can be grown in a small space, and although the growth 

 on each one during the season is small, yet the aggregate is 

 considerable. The plant will grow much more rapidly under 

 cultivadon than it will wild, and it therefore seems destined to 

 become an important agricultural product. The seed alone 

 will pay for the expense of cultivation, and there will soon be 

 a demand for all there can be produced. The Legislature of 

 Ontario, by its recent action in passing the law to prohibit the 

 digging of roots between the ist of January and the ist of Sep- 

 tember, has taken a step in the right direction, and it would be 

 well if our state legislatures would pass similar acts for the 

 protection of the wild plants in this country. 



There is a general impression that our Ginseng may be 

 grown in the forest, but that it cannot be successfully culti- 

 vated in the open garden or field. Of course the forest is the 

 natural home, and when it is once established in the woods it 

 will require but little care or attention. The only danger 

 would be in protecting the crop. Ginseng, along with otiier 

 medicinal roots growing wild, is by common consent regarded 

 as free plunder, and the average Ginseng-hunter would hardly 

 have so fine a sense of honor as to discriminate between the 

 wild and cultivated plants. In the forest any light soil will 

 answer, so long as it is not wet or swampy. All that is neces- 

 sary is to place the seeds or roots in the ground, and nature 

 will do the rest if time is given. My own operations have 



