MATERIA MEDICA, AND THERAPEUTICS. 
77 
manufacture of sugar to the Canary Islands, from whence they were conveyed 
to tropical America and its islands. In 1503, or about eleven years after its 
discovery, the culture and manufacture were fully established in Hispaniola. 
Sugar was, however, an article of consumption in Western Europe long before 
the discovery of America. England was supplied from the emporia of Venice 
and Antwerp, and in the time of Shakspeare the name of the article was so 
familiar as already to have its secondary or figurative meaning, as in the ex¬ 
pression, “sugared words.”— Mr. Craufurd on the Migration of Plants. 
Gioseng. 
The Foreign Commissioner at the treaty port of Newchang reports that Gin¬ 
seng maintains its great repute in China. Every native, from the Emperor to 
the humblest coolie, places implicit faith in the efficacy of this strange root, 
which for ages has been extolled as a universal medicine or panacea. The 
genuine Manchurian Ginseng consists of a stem, from which the leaves spring, 
of a centre root, and of two roots branching off at the same point from each 
side of the centre root; the stem somewhat resembles the head and neck, the 
side roots the shoulders and arms of a man, the main root represents the body, 
and a fork, which the main root frequently forms, supplies the legs. The 
Chinese, with a not ungraceful feeling, believe that a plant which thus expands 
into the human form, amid thickets and jungles on which the foot of man 
never trod, must be intended to alleviate the sufferings of the human race. For 
Ginseng loves the moist, dense forests which cling to the slopes of the hills ; it 
nestles in recesses which are as pathless now as in the days when the Golden 
Tartars were dwelling in the plain. Fine Manchurian Ginseng is only found in 
the upper valley of the Usuri, where ruined towns and forts mark the cradle of 
the race which occupies the imperial throne. The precious qualities of Ginseng- 
are increased and intensified by age, and a plant is of no great value until it 
has been growing and gathering strength for at least an ordinary lifetime. The 
upper portions of the root possess the healing power; the stem which appears 
above ground ought not to be eaten. Formerly the collection of Ginseng was 
in the hands of some forty merchants, who obtained the necessary authority 
from the Tartar General Kirin on payment of a heavy fee, handing over to 
Government also a certain weight of the product of the search. The merchants 
employed outlaws, whom the fear of punishment had driven to take refuge in 
these wilds, and who underwent great hardships in the task, menaced by star¬ 
vation, and by the wolf, the tiger, and the leopard. But in the time of Tau- 
kuang, Ginseng was becoming yearly more scarce, and plants of any great age 
were rarely found. In order to arrest their utter extinction the collection of 
the wild root was prohibited by imperial edict. Nevertheless, a very small 
quantity is still clandestinely collected,—to a considerable extent, however, in 
Russian territory. The cultivation of Ginseng, though allowed, is not en¬ 
couraged. It is cultivated in Manchooria, and in the Corea. 
Artificial Cultivation of Truffles. 
After a long and diligent study of the locality and natural conditions under 
which this esteemed delicacy is produced, M. Rousseau, of Carpentras, in 
France, has succeeded in his attempts to cultivate truffles, and has already 
raised a very fair crop. There is no reason why they should not be grown 
with equal facility in England, and it might well be worth the serious attention 
of some of our scientific agriculturists to devote a few acres of their land to 
give it a fair trial, the more so as a plantation of oak-trees is of imporcance, both 
in a national and pecuniary point of view. The truffle grows exclusively under 
oaks standing not too closely together, and free from underwood, and in a soil 
