110 



GIXKGO BILOBA. 



Branches more or less pendulous, but sometimes only 

 slightly deflexed. Of slower growth than the common form. 



variegata. Leaves blotched and streaked witli pale yellow. 



In Japan the Ginkgo attains a very large size and lives to an 

 unknown age ; trees fully 100 feet high with massive trunks six to 

 seven feet in diameter are to be seen in the neighbourhood of 

 temples at Tokio. In Europe some of the oldest trees have attained 

 a still greater height, but the trunks are smaller. Both in Europe 

 and North America the Ginkgo has proved quite hardy, often 

 thriving under the most trying conditions of climate, a circumstance 

 which seems to confirm the hypothesis of its northern origin. As 

 a picturesque tree it is unrivalled, whether standing alone or 

 associated for contrast with others of different genera. Its usually 

 straight, erect trunk is furnished with short branches, of which the 

 lower ones spread horizontally ; but when from any cause the growth 

 of the principal axis is arrested the primary branches lengthen 

 considerably, and the tree presents a much broader outline. In 

 summer, its curious Maidenhair-like leaves impart to it a light and 

 airy aspect ; but it is in autumn, when the foliage takes on a rich 

 golden hue that the beauty of the Ginkgo is most conspicuous, and 

 for that reason alone it should have a place in every garden where 

 space permits ; the defoliation is, however, often very rapid especially 

 when the weather is stormy. It is one of the best of trees for 

 planting in crowded towns, its thick leathery leaves covered with a 

 tough resisting skin enabling it to withstand the injurious effects of 

 smoke and other atmospheric impurities. 



The secular history of the Ginkgo dates only from the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century. It first became known to Europeans through 

 Engebert Kaempfer, who visited Japan in 1690 in the rapacity of 

 physician to the Dutch Embassy, and who published a figure and 

 description of the tree in his "Amcenitates Exoticae," which appeared in 

 1712. Much uncertainty exists as to the precise date of its introduc- 

 tion into Europe ; according to London it is believed to have been 

 introduced into Holland some time between 1727 1737, this hypothesis 

 being founded upon the supposed age of a tree in the Botanic Garden 

 at Utrecht. Its introduction into Great Britain is stated by the same 

 authority to have been in 1754 or a year or two earlier, because in 

 that year Mr. John Ellis, F.R.&., a London merchant and correspondent 

 of Limiseus, informed the latter that there were plants of the Ginkgo 

 in the nursery of Mr. James Gordon at Mile End.* Up to the end of the 

 eighteenth century it continued to be very scarce in Europe ; seeds were 

 procurable with extreme difficulty, and propagation was effected el deny by 

 cuttings and layers. The first tree that was observed to flower in this 

 country was one in the Royal Gardens at Kew in 1795, which had 

 been trained against a wall; the flowers were all staminate, and during 



* Arhoretuin et Fruticetum Britaimicum, IV. 2095. 



