58 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



1895, p. 444. We are indebted to Mrs. Archibald Little for a photograph taken by 

 her in Western China, of a tree 19^ feet round the base, and larger above, which 

 very well shows these excrescences (Plate 23). 



Identification 



In summer the leaves are unmistakable. In winter the long and short shoots 

 should be examined. The long shoot of one year's growth is round, smooth, 

 brownish, and shining, the terminal buds being larger than the scattered lateral 

 buds, which come off at a wide angle. The buds are conical, and composed of 

 several imbricated brown dotted scales. The leaf-scars show 2 small cicatrices, and 

 are fringed above with white pubescence. The short shoots are spurs of varying 

 length, up to an inch or more, stout, ringed, and bearing at their apex a bud 

 surrounded by several double-dotted leaf-scars. In Pseudolarix and the larches, 

 which have somewhat similar spurs, the leaf-scars are much smaller, and show on 

 their surface only one tiny cicatrice. In Taxodium there are no spurs, and the scars 

 which are left where the twigs have fallen off show only one central cicatrice. 



Varieties 



The following forms are known in cultivation : 



Var. variegata. Leaves blotched and streaked with pale yellow. 



Var. pendula. Branches more or less pendulous. 



Var. macrophylla laciniata. Leaves much larger than in the ordinary form, 

 8 inches or more in width, and divided into 3 to 5 lobes, which are themselves 

 subdivided. 



Var. triloba. Scarce worthy of recognition, as the leaves in all Ginkgo trees are 

 exceedingly variable in lobing. 



Var. fastigiata. Columnar in shape, the branches being directed almost 

 vertically upwards.^ 



Distribution and History 



The wild habitat of Ginkgo biloba, the only species now living, is not known 

 for certain. The late Mrs. Bishop, in a letter to the Standard, Aug. 17, 1899, 

 ; reported that she had observed it growing wild in Japan, in the great forest north- 

 ward from Lebungd on Volcano Bay in Yezo, and also in the country at the 

 sources of the great Gold and Min rivers in Western China. However, all scientific 

 travellers in Japan and the leading Japanese botanists and foresters deny its 

 being indigenous in any part of Japan ; and botanical collectors have not 

 observed it truly wild in China. Consul -General Hosie^ says it is common in 

 Szechuan, especially in the hills bounding the upper waters of the river Min ; but 

 he does not explicitly assert that it is wild there. Its native habitat has yet to be 



' See Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 602. An interesting article by W. Falconer, who gives some curious details concerning 

 the Ginkgo tree in the United States. 



2 Parliamentary Papers, China, No. 5, 1904 ; Consul-General Hosie's Report, 18. Mr. E. H. Wilson in all his explora- 

 tions of Western China never saw any but cultivated trees. 



