are sometimes found single,) each of them had two rough stones, separated from each other, of nearly the size and figure of common lentils. The berries were supported on small sprigs, which rose from a common centre like the rays of a sphere. The fruit is not good to eat. The berries are not round but a little flat on each side. When they are double there is a depression or hollow place in the middle where the two parts unite. Each berry has a small beard at top diametrically opposite to the sprig on which it hangs. When the berry is dry there remains only a shrivelled skin, adhering close to the stones, of a dark red, or black colour.

The plant dies away and springs up again every year. The number of years may be known by the number of stalks it has shot forth, of which there always remains a mark or scar on the upper part of the root.

"As to the flower," says he, "not having seen it, I can give no description of it. Some say it is white and very small; others have assured me that the plant has none, and that nobody ever saw it. I rather believe that it is so small and so little remarkable, that none of them ever took notice of it.

"There are some plants, which, besides the bunch of berries, have one or two berries like the former, placed an inch or an inch and an half below the bunch. And when this happens, they say if any one takes notice of the point of compass to which these berries direct, he will not fail to find more of the plant."

The foregoing description of Jartoux is introduced as being a very intelligible description of a plant, in language not the most botanical. The drawing, which accompanies the description, is very satisfactory.

The report of the high value of the Ginseng at Pekin led to an inquiry among Europeans, whether the plant was not to be found in parallel latitudes, in the forests of North America. Father Lafiteau, a Jesuit, missionary among the Iroquois, after much search, found a plant in Canada answering the description, and sent it to France. In 1718, M. Sarrasin published in the Memoirs of the Academy an account of the American Ginseng; which, together with one published by Laf iteau the same year, seemed to put its identity with the Chinese vegetable beyond a doubt.

Soon after this the French commenced the collection of the root in Canada for exportation. For this purpose they employed the Indians, who

brought it to the merchants for a certain compensation. At one period the Indians about Quebec and Montreal were so wholly taken up in the search for Ginseng, that their services could not be engaged for any other purpose. The American English engaged in the same traffic, and although the plant is a rare one in the woods, yet very large quantities of the root were collected. In 1748, Kalm tells us the common price of the root at Quebec was from five to six livres a pound. The first shipments to China proved extremely profitable to those concerned, especially to the French. In a short time, however, the amount exported overstocked the market, the Chinese began to think the American Ginseng inferior to the Tartarian, and its value depreciated, so that it ceased to be an object of profitable commerce. Its demand has not materially risen at any subsequent period, although it is still occasionally exported. The Chinese most readily purchase the forked or branching roots; and those exporters have been most successful, who have prepared their Ginseng by clarifying it after the Chinese

manner.

The American Ginseng is thinly scattered throughout the mountainous regions of the Northern and Middle States. Kalm informs us, that it

is seldom found north of Montreal. Michaux states that it inhabits mountains and rich, shady woods from Canada to Tennessee. I have principally met with this plant in the western parts of Massachusetts, and in Vermont, especially on the sides of the Ascutney mountain. Bartram found it near the mouth of the Delaware.

Linnæus has given to the genus of plants, which includes the Ginseng, the name of Panax, a Greek word, intended to express the reputed character of the Chinese panacea.

The character of this genus consists in a simple umbel; corolla five petalled; berry inferior, two or three seeded; plants polygamous.

The species quinquefolium has three quinate leaves.

The root of this plant consists of one or more fleshy, oblong and somewhat fusiform portions, of a whitish colour, transversely wrinkled, and terminating in various radicles. Its upper portion is slender and marked with the scars of the former shoots. Stem smooth, round, green, with often a tinge of red, regularly divided at top into three petioles, with a flower-stalk at their centre. oles round, smooth, swelling at base. Leaves three, compound, containing five, rarely three or seven leafets. The partial leaf-stalks are given

Peti

off in a digitate manner, and are smooth, compressed and furrowed above. Leafets oblong, obovate, sharply serrate, acuminate, smooth on both sides, with scattered bristles on the veins above. The flowers, which are small, grow in a simple umbel on a round, slender peduncle, longer than the petioles. The involucrum consists of a multitude of short subulate leafets, interspersed with the flower-stalks. These stalks or rays are so short as to give the appearance of a head, rather than umbel. In the perfect flowers the calyx has five small acute teeth; the corolla five petals, which are oval, reflexed and deciduous. StaStyles two, re

inferior, ovate

mens five, with oblong anthers. flexed, persistent; germ large, heart shaped, compressed. The berries are kidney shaped, retuse at both ends, compressed, of a bright scarlet colour, crowned with the calyx and styles, and containing two semi-circular seeds. In most umbels there are flowers with only one style, in which case the berry has a semi-cordate form, as represented in fig. 3. Sometimes there are three styles and three seeds. The outermost flowers ripen first, and their berries often obtain their full size before the central ones are expanded. The middle flowers are frequently abortive.