In the '' Ramble " — Fourth Excursion 



on the "West Drive" from the south. It is one of 

 the later additions to our sylva, and one writer errs in 

 speaking of its maximum height in this country as being 

 about thirty feet; for many in the Park tower above all 

 surrounding trees ; and their massive tops and stalwart 

 forms, at once vigorous and graceful, heavy -foliaged 

 with a catalpa-like leaf often a foot long, surmounted 

 through the winter by large and abundant pyramidal 

 clusters of flower-buds that in June expand into a robe 

 of royal purple, make the Paulownia imperialis — with no 

 subserviency to foreign titles — one of the finest arboreal 

 examples in the Park. 



Ginkgo. — But our most singular tree in these grounds 

 comes from China, and is becoming popular, though 

 not yet abundant — the ginkgo or maidenhair tree, from 

 the fern-like appearance of its leaf, in which the veining 

 is radically different from that of any other native or 

 foreign tree that we have. Quite as unusual also is the 

 tree's figure, with a very few long branches at an angle 

 of forty-five degrees or more, and numerous short, 

 slender branches closely appressed to the trunk after the 

 fashion of the Lombardy poplar. A single specimen 

 would induce the belief that its skeleton appearance was 

 due to careless or eccentric pruning, but after seeing 

 half a dozen, one is convinced that it is the work of 

 nature. The best cluster is on the western slope of the 

 slight eminence west of the esplanade. It is, in fact, a 

 pleasing curiosity, and as such a single specimen is 

 sufficient for a lawn. A tall tree of this sort is very 

 spindling, but the low growths are not devoid of grace. 



107 



