THE BEST HARDY CONIFERS 135 



in the fall clear yellow tints. In the Hunnewell 

 Pinetum at Wellesley, Mass., there is growing a par- 

 ticularly fine specimen which has ripened perfect 

 seeds. This tree is a native of eastern China south of 

 the Yangtsze River but very little is known concerning 

 its appearance in a wild state, notwithstanding the 

 fact that it has been known since 1804. 



Although properly speaking not Conifers, the 

 Maidenhair-tree (Ginkgo biloba), the Yews (Taxus), 

 and their allies are usually associated with that family 

 in the popular mind and for horticultural purposes 

 may be so considered. In some respects the Ginkgo 

 is the most interesting of living trees since it is a relic 

 of an ancient flora which flourished during the 

 Mesozoic Age. Fossil remains, apparently identical 

 with the living tree, have been found in western North 

 America, in Greenland, in the London clays of Eng- 

 land, and elsewhere. At one time it was probably 

 common in north temperate lands of both Old and New 

 Worlds but to-day it no longer exists in a wild state 

 and we owe its preservation to the religious sanctu- 

 aries of China and Japan. It is a very hardy, quick- 

 growing, long-lived tree, attaining a height of one hun- 

 dred feet with a trunk twenty feet in girth and thrives 

 equally well in city or countryside. Its outline is ra- 

 ther variable but usually it has rather long, spreading 



