Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/563

Rh, and has a fleshy root from four to nine inches long, which throws up a simple stem about a foot high, bearing at the top three long-petioled leaves, each of which has five divisions. The stem terminates in a small umbel of inconspicuous greenish-white flowers, which are succeeded by a small, berry-like red fruit. It has a peculiar and rather pleasant smell, and a sweet, somewhat pungent, aromatic taste. According to the Chinese, the root nourishes and strengthens the body, checks vomiting, removes hypochondriasis and other nervous affections, gives a vigorous tone to the system, even in old age, and is, in short, a panacea for all the ills to which flesh is heir. European and American doctors consider it almost worthless as a remedy, though it is sometimes used as a domestic medicine in the States west of the Alleghanies. Panax frudicosus and Panax cochleatus, plants somewhat akin to ginseng, are fragrant aromatics, which grow in the Moluccas, and are used by the native practitioners of India. With such unbounded faith in its beneficial effect both on body and mind, what wonder that the discovery that stores of ginseng are yet to be found in Canada should have created a demand among the Celestial population on this continent, and that the industry of digging and preparing it for market should have assumed very considerable proportions!

As already stated, the trade in ginseng is a revival of one that formerly existed. In the autumn of 1716 Père Joseph François Lafitan, a Jesuit father, who had arrived in the country in 1712, and was stationed at the Sault, above Montreal, discovered the plant. He had been in Quebec in 1715, and there saw a letter of Père Jartoux, who had seen ginseng in Tartary in 1709, and who gave a description of it. Lafitan inquired about it from the Indians, and examined the country to find it. At this time it was worth its weight in gold at Pekin. A company was formed to export it to China, Japan, and Tartary. The price at Quebec was from thirty to forty sous or cents per pound. At first any one was allowed to sell it, but as its value increased the company exercised its monopoly rights, and in 1751 undertook to exclude all others from the trade. As the demand increased, the care with which it was obtained and prepared was relaxed. It was gathered