RO^AL GARDENS, KEW. 

 BULLETIN 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



Nos. 76-77.] APRIL and MAY. [1893. 



CCXCVIII.— AMERICAN GINSENG. 



{Aralia quinquefolia, A. Gray.) 

 With Plate. 



In a recent number of the Kew Bulletin t IS«)l\ p. 107) a note was 

 published on Ginseng, :i tonic and stimulant medicine highly valued by 

 the Chinese. It was pointed out that there were two principal sorts of 

 Ginseng known — the North American Ginseng {Aralia qaim/iajolia, 

 A. Gray), collected in the Eastern United States and Canada and ex- 

 ported to China, and the Corean Ginseng {Aralia quinquefolia var. 

 (Unseat/, Keg. el Mack ). a principal article of export from Corea into 

 China. The produce of the American plant is used only as a substitute 

 for the Chinese article. It is ranked as about fourth in quality; that 

 from Japan being the least esteemed. 



Seeds of the V orean Ginseng were recently received at Kew from Mr. 

 Walter C. Hillier, Her Majesty's Consul General in Corea. It is, how- 

 ever, too early, yet, to give the results. In the meantime, the following 

 information may prove of interest in regard to the American piaut, 

 which is proposed to be protected from extinction in Canada by legisla- 

 tive enactment, while in the United State- experiments are being 

 carried on to increase the supply by cultivation. The industry, such as 

 it is in the New World, has, hitherto, been entirely dependent on the 

 plants found wild in the forests. 



The American Ginseng belongs to the natural order Araliaceee, an 



Fatsia, the tropical Sciadopht/lhun and Uedera (the common ivy)'. 



than a font or 1 o inches high, the leave- are long-talked, palmatiscct, witli 

 usually live leaflets (hence the specific name), arranged in a whorl of 



