‖ Panax
(ˈpænæks)
[L. panax, ad. Gr. πανακής, -κες all-healing, πάνακες the plant yielding opopanax.]
Panace, All-heal; now a Linnæan genus of plants (family Araliaceæ), containing herbs, shrubs, and trees, of tropical and Northern Asia and America, some of them noted for real or supposed medicinal virtues, esp. the Ginseng (P. Schinseng) and American species (P. quinquefolium).
| c 1617 Middleton Witch iii. iii. 29 Marmaritin and mandragora, thou wouldst say. Here's panax too. 1638 Nabbes Bride iv. i, Panax Coloni Is known to every rustick; and Hipericon. 1819 Pantologia s.v., Ginseng was formerly supposed to be confined to the mountains of Chinese Tartary: it is now, however, fully ascertained that the American panax quinquefolia is precisely the same. |