314 P A N A X. 
Flowers. Calyx: umbel fimple, equal, cluftered. In¬ 
volucre many-leaved, awl-lhaped, very fmall, perma¬ 
nent. Perianthium proper, very fmall, five-toothed, per¬ 
manent. Corolla : universal, uniform ; proper, of five 
oblong equal recurved petals. Stamina: filaments five, 
very fhort, caducous. Antherae fimple. Piftillum : ger- 
men roundilh, inferior; ftylestwo, fmall, upright; ftigmas 
fimple. Pericarpium: berry cordate, umbilicate, two- 
celled. Seeds folitary, cordate, acute, plano-convex. 
II. Male Flowers on a diftinft plant. Calyx : umbel 
fimple, globular; with very many equal coloured rays. 
Involucre compofed of lanceolate fertile leaflets, the fame 
number with the external rays. Perianthium turbinate, 
quite entire, coloured. Corolla: petals five, oblong, 
blunt, narrow, reflex, placed on the perianthium. Sta¬ 
mina: filaments five, filiform, longer, inferted into the 
perianthium. Antherae fimple .—Ejjential Chara&er. Um¬ 
bel : Corolla five-petalled; ftannna five. Hermaphro¬ 
dite : Calyx five-toothed, fuperior; ftyles two; berry 
too-feeded. Male: Calyx entire. 
This is the only known genus of the true digynous 
umbelliferous tribe, whofe fruit is pulpy. That very 
natural order is fo liable to occafional variations in the 
organs of impregnation, or, in other words, fo many of 
its genera or fpecies are, more or lefs conftantly, poly¬ 
gamous, that it is defirabie they fhould all be kept to¬ 
gether in the pentandria digynia, to which they properly 
belong, notwithanding that difference of ftrufture which 
is faid to exift between the calyx of the male and that of 
the perfeft flowers. Bernard de Jufiieu remarked that 
there are fometimes three ftyles and three feeds; and his 
nephew refers Panax to his order of araliae, as does Lin¬ 
naeus to his own, nearly equivalent, order of hederacese. 
The fmooth, very juicy, and ufually beautifully-coloured, 
berries of Panax, are peculiar and chara&eriftic. There 
are ten fpecies. 
x. Panax quinquefolium, or true Chinefe ginfeng: 
leaves tern quinate. Ginfeng has a fiefliy taper root as 
large as a man’s finger, jointed, and frequently divided 
into two branches, fending off' many fhort flender fibres. 
The ftalk rifes near a foot and a half high, and is naked at 
the top, where it generally divides into three fmaller 
footrtalks, each fuftaining a leaf compofed of five fpear- 
fhaped leaflets, ferrate, pale-green, and a little hairy. 
The ftalk is erefif, fmooth, round, fimple, tinged of a 
deep purple colour. The leaves arife with the flower-ftem 
from a thick joint at the extremity of the ftalk : they are 
generally three, but fometimes more ; the five leaves into 
which each of thefe are divided are of an irregular oval 
fhape, veined, pointed, fmooth, deep green above, on fhort 
footftalks, from a common petiole, which is long, round, 
and almoft ere£t. The flowers grow on a flender pe¬ 
duncle juft at the divifion of the petioles, and are formed 
into a fmall umbel at the top; they are of an herbaceous 
yellow colour, and appear at the beginning of June. 
The berries are firft green, but afterwards turn red ; and 
inclofe two hard feeds, which ripen in the beginning of 
Auguft. Linnaeus remarks, that the feeds produce a ter- 
nate leaf, without any feed-leaves, like the monocotyie- 
donous plants. Bernard Jufiieu fometimes obferved three 
ftyles in the flower, and three feeds. 
Ginfeng is a native of Chinefe Tartary, from 39 to 49 0 
of latitude. It has been gathered time immemorial in 
that country. In 1709, the emperor of China gave orders 
to ten thoufand Tartars to go in queft of thefe roots, 
and to bring as much as they could find ; every one was 
to give two pounds of the beft to the emperor, and to fell 
the reft for the fame weight of fine filver. In this man¬ 
ner the emperor procured twenty thoufand katyc, or 
Chinefe pounds, in one year. 
The Chinefe name of yan-fam or gin-Jem, and the Ame¬ 
rican of garautouges or garangtoging, are both derived 
from the fancied refemblance with the branching root 
bears to the human figure. The Tartars call it orhota, 
“ the nioft noble, or queen, of plants.” Both they and 
the Chinefe afcribe extraordinary virtues to this root, 
and have long confidered it as a fovereign remedy in al¬ 
moft all difeafes to which they are liable, having no con¬ 
fidence in any medicine, unlefs in combination with it. 
Ofbeck fays, that he never looked into the apothecaries’ 
fnops, but they were always .felling ginfeng; that both 
poor people and tdiofe of the higheft rank make ufe of it; 
and that they boil half an ounce in their tea or foup every 
morning, as a remedy for a confumption and other dif¬ 
eafes. Jartoux relates, that the moll eminent phyficians 
in China have written volumes on the medicinal powers 
of this plant, aflerting that it gives immediate relief in 
extreme fatigue, either of body or mind ; that it diflblves 
pituitous humours and renders refpiration eafy, ftrength- 
ens the ftomach, promotes appetite, ftops vomitings, re¬ 
moves hyfterical, hypochondriacal, and all nervous, affec¬ 
tions, giving a vigorous tone of body even in extreme 
old age. Jartoux himfelf was fo biaffed by eaftern pre¬ 
judice in favour of ginfeng, that he feems to give then- 
extravagant eftefts full credit, and confirms them in fome 
meafure from his own experience. It w\as in the year 
1709 that this author made a delineation and defcription 
of the real ginfeng on the fpot, and fent his drawing and 
defcription to the Royal Society, who publilhed both in 
their Tranfaftions, vol. xxviii. Fig. 2, on the Engraving 
at p. 265, reprefents this curious plant. A, the root, 
which, when walhed, was white, and a little rugged and 
uneven, as the roots of other plants generally are. BCD 
reprefent the length and thicknefs of the ftalk; which is 
fmooth and pretty round, of a dcepifli-red colour, except 
near its beginning at B, where it is whiter, by its nearnefs 
to the ground. D is a fort of knot or joint, made by the 
(hooting out of four branches, which all rife from the 
fame centre, and divide from one another at equal dif- 
tances, and at the fame height from the ground. The 
under fide of the branch is green, mixed with white; the 
upper part is much like the ftalk, of a deep red, inclining 
to the colour of a mulberry. Thefe two colours gradually 
decreafe, and unite together on the lides, in a natural 
mixture. Each branch has five leaves,, as reprefented in 
the figure. It is remarkable, that thefe branches feparate 
from each other at equal diftances, as well in refpeft of 
themfelves as of the horizon, and make with their leaves 
a circular figure nearly parallel to the furface of the 
ground. I do not know that ever I faw leaves fo large as 
thefe, that were fo thin and fine: their fibres are very dif- 
tingui(liable, and on the upper fide they have fome fmall 
whitifli hairs; the fkin between the fibres rifes a little 
in the middle above the level of the fibres. The colour 
of the leaf is a dark-green above, find a fhining whitifh- 
green underneath. All the leaves are ferrated, or very 
finely indented on the edges. From D, the centre of the 
branches, rifes a fecond ftalk, D E, which is very ftraight 
and fmooth, and whitifli from bottom to top, bearing a 
bunch of round fruit of a beautiful red colour. This 
bunch was compofed of twenty-four berries, two of which 
I have here drawn, marked gg. The red fkin of the berry 
is very thin and fmooth: it contains within it a white 
foftifh pulp. As thefe berries were double (for they are 
fometimes found Angle), each of them had two rough 
ftones, feparated from each other, of the iize and figure of 
our common lentils, excepting that the ftones have not a 
thin edge like lentils, but are almoft every-where of an 
equal thicknefs. Each berry was fupported by a fmooth, 
even, and very-fine, fprig, of the colour of thofe of our 
fmall red cherries. All thefe fprigs rofe from the fame 
centre ; and, fpreading exaflly like the rays of a fphere, 
they make the bunch of berries of a circular form. This 
fruit is not good to eat. The ftone is like the ftones of 
other common fruit 5 it is hard, and inclofes a kernel. It 
is always placed on the fame plane or level with the fprig 
that bears the berry; from whence it is that the berry is 
not round, but a little flat on each fide. If it be double, 
there is a kind of depreflion, or hollow place, in the middle, 
where the two parts unite. It has alfo a fmall beard at 
top, 
