In the * Ramble ”—Fourth Excursion 
on the ‘‘ West Drive’’ from the south. It is one of 
the later additions to our sylva, and one writer errs in 
speaking of its maximum height in this country as being 
about thirty feet; for many in the Park tower above all 
surrounding trees; and their massive tops and stalwart 
forms, at once vigorous and graceful, heavy-foliaged 
with a catalpa-like leaf often a foot long, surmounted 
through the winter by large and abundant pyramidal 
clusters of flower-buds that in June expand into a robe 
of royal purple, make the Paulownia imperialis—with no 
subserviency to foreign titles—one of the finest arboreal 
examples in the Park. 
Ginkco.—But our most singular tree in these grounds 
comes from China, and is becoming popular, though 
not yet abundant—the ginkgo or maidenhair tree, from 
the fern-like appearance of its leaf, in which the veining 
is radically different from that of any other native or 
foreign tree that we have. Quite as unusual also is the 
tree’s figure, with a very few long branches at an angle 
of forty-five degrees or more, and numerous short, 
slender branches closely appressed to the trunk after the 
fashion of the Lombardy poplar. A single specimen 
would induce the belief that its skeleton appearance was 
due to careless or eccentric pruning, but after seeing 
half a dozen, one is convinced that it is the work of 
nature. The best cluster is on the western slope of the 
slight eminence west of the esplanade. It is, in fact, a 
pleasing curiosity, and as such a single specimen is 
sufficient for a lawn. A tall tree of this sort is very 
spindling, but the low growths are not devoid of grace. 
107 
