THE MAIDENHAIR TREE SEWARD 445 



sun, the carbon-giving gas in the atmosphere, and the water in the 

 soil exactly as trees of the present day. When we reconstruct the 

 continents over which the forests spread and restore to life the con- 

 temporary companions of the old ginkgos, continuity gives place to 

 discontinuity; land where there is now water and water over regions 

 that are now land. As the wind spreads a kaleidoscopic pattern of 

 lights and shadows over the massed branches of the tree, we cannot 

 but be conscious of the contrast between the wind, that has blown 

 since the earth began, and the varying nature of the old-time forests — 



'Tis the old wind in the old anger 

 But then it threshed another wood. 



When we regard the earth's surface in terms of the ordinary time- 

 scale it gives us an impression of stability: adopting the time-scale of 

 geologists we are able to measure the duration of earlier periods ; as we 

 pass from one age to another we can follow the shifting boundaries of 

 continents and seas. With minds prepared by thoughts derived from 

 a geological retrospect Ginkgo becomes much more to us than a mere 

 tree; it speaks to us as an oracle recording in the trembling accents 

 of its fluttering leaves the varying fortunes of its race and wanderings 

 over the world's surface as age succeeded age; it gives us glimpses of 

 the great procession of life and the building of the world in which we 

 live. 



A NOTE ON THE NAME GINKGO 



The name Ginkgo was coined by Kaempfer, who traveled widely in 

 the Far East, for a tree he first saw in Japan in 1690. In 1712 in his 

 book Amoenitates Exoticae, he spoke of the tree as "Ginkgo vel Gin 

 an, vulgo Itsjo, arbor nucifera folio Adianto," and published an excel- 

 lent drawing of foliage-shoots and seeds. Linnaeus in 1771 adopted 

 Kaempfer's generic name and called the plant Ginkgo biloba. In 

 obedience to the rules of nomenclature governing botanical usage this 

 is generally accepted. Twenty-six years later J. E. Smith proposed 

 to substitute the generic name Salisburia for the "equally uncouth 

 and barbarous" Ginkgo of Kaempfer; he also altered the specific name 

 biloba to adiantifolia. Smith's proposal was made subsequent to the 

 date accepted as the starting-point of botanical nomenclature and 

 was therefore not adopted. The word Ginkgo, which The Times 

 newspaper, in recent correspondence on the tree, preferred to spell 

 Gingko, has been variously interpreted. In order to ascertain its true 

 meaning I consulted my friend, the Rev. Dr. A. C. Moule, professor 

 of Chinese at Cambridge, who at once became interested and spared 

 no pains to satisfy my curiosity. His extended researches have now 

 been summarized in a paper published in T'oung Pao, vol. 33, livr. 2 

 (E. J. Brill, Leiden). 



