GINSENG. 5 



The part of the plant commercially important is the root. 

 This is composed of two parts, the rootstalk (or sometimes called 

 neck) and the root proper. The former is slender, rarely exceed- 

 ing % inch in diameter and is marked by a number of scars- 

 These scars are left by the stem of the plant, which dies off in 

 autumn, so that each scar indicates a year in the life of the I'oot. 

 Koots have been found in the forest showing as many as sixty of 

 these scars, indicating that the root had existed sixty years- The 

 root itself is spindle-shaped, .'S'eliowish white in appeai-ance, -^ 



marked with transverse wrinkles, often forked below, and is i-arely '' / 

 found to be more tlian I/2 inches in diameter and from three to ten 

 inches K)ng (See Fig. 2). A bud, for next year's growth of stem 

 and plant, forms in August on the upper end of the rootstalk at 

 the side of the stem. (In digging roots for the purpose of trans- 

 planting, great care must be exercised not to disturb this bud, for 

 if broken off or crushed, the root will remain dormant the follow- 

 ing year and will not produce a stem, and in some cases it is 

 doubtful whether it will evei' grow again. In most cases, however, 

 the root will form a new bud during the summer during which it 

 is dormant and will put forth its leafstalk all the more vigorously 

 the following year as if it wanted to make up for lost time.) 



In this locality (central Wisconsin) the ginseng plant makes 

 its appearance above ground in early May (Fig- 3), and by the 

 middle of June the leaves attain their full size- The plant repro- 

 duces itself only by its seed- 



