RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS 



is the first recorded ginko in America 

 to fruit. "About 1830 Charles J. Wis- 

 ter planted one of the first ailanthus 

 (ailanthus glandulosus) brought from 

 China. This is one of the most rapid 

 growers of any known tree, and has 

 attained a height of over 70 feet, and 

 has a girth of 12 feet 2 inches." 



Here also is a rare specimen of 

 papaw (asimina triloba), a tree equal- 

 ed only by one of the same kind at 

 "Wyck," one foot in diameter by 40 

 feet high. "A gray poplar (populus 

 alba), introduced about the latter part 

 of the last century from Italy, is also 

 growing in Mr. Wister's grounds. Its 

 trunk measures 10 feet 4 inches, and 

 its branches cover a great area of 

 ground." 



When we remember that the old 

 fruit trees of "Grumblethorpe" have 

 lived through the busiest life of our 

 town, and yet bear as they did at a 

 time when Christopher Saur in a build- 

 ing close by printed pamphlets and 

 books now highly prized, we may well 

 halt for a moment of reverential med- 

 itation, not for the trees and their 

 produce, but for the power which 

 gave them life, which sustained them, 

 and which has given them to us. In- 



65 



