deciduous leaves instead of needles.^The flower largely determines its position 

 in botanical classification, the staminate and the pistillate flowers being borne 

 on different branches of the same tree. The female flowers consist of two 

 naked ovules which receive the pollen. These ripen into the fruit of the 

 ginkgo, which resembles a small plum. The fleshy part is ill-scented, but the 

 kernels, which have a sweetish flavor, are highly esteemed for food and for their 

 medicinal value by the Chinese. 



The ginkgo is a picturesque tree, due to its straggling branch habit and 

 irregular, open, conical form. It seldom exceeds a height of sixty feet in the 

 Orient and in this country its maximum height is about forty feet. It is 

 becoming a favorite tree for street planting because of its upright habit, 

 attractive foliage and apparent immunity from insect injury. The leaves 

 are clear green in the spring and early summer, changing in .the fall to a soft 

 yellow shortly before defoliation. 



Exquisite landscape effects may be obtained by planting the ginkgo in 

 lawns and parks, especially where it is massed with deciduous trees and 

 shrubs with leathery, dark green foliage. It is also a good street tree and in 

 Washington, D. C., lines an avenue leading to the Agriculture Building. 



PINES 



The Greeks dedicated the pine to Bacchus, and its cone, the symbol 

 of fecundity, decorated that god's thyrsus. Its evergreen character is ac- 

 counted for by an ancient legend. Atys, a Phrygian shepherd, loved Cybele, 

 the mother of the gods, and vowed to be ever faithful to her. He broke his 

 vow, and she in anger changed him into a pine tree beneath which she spent 

 her time mourning. Jupiter sought to comfort her by promising that the pine 



should never be bereft of its leaves. 



The pine has been termed the Aeolian harp of the forest. Richard Jeffries 

 describes its music which forever floats upon the breeze as follows: 



"Over in the field the row of pines was sighing; the wind lingered 

 and clung to the close foliage, and each needle of the million million 

 leaflets drew its tongue across the organ blast." 



The pines embrace about seventy species and its members excel all other 

 cone-bearing trees in the extent of area occupied, and in usefulness and im- 

 portance to the human race. Some species are found on dry soils, and some in 



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