THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



Broussonet, who was then in London, a Ginkgo plant 

 and he sent it to Professor Gouan of the Montpellier 

 Botanic Garden where it was planted. In 1790, an 

 English amateur named Blake, sent a Ginkgo plant 

 to M. Gaussen de Chapeau-rouge who had a garden 

 at Bourdigny, a village two leagues from Geneva, 

 Switzerland, where he cultivated many rare trees. 

 This tree, is historical. It proved to be a femiale, 

 the discovery being made by Auguste Py ramus 

 De Candolle in 1814. Scions from this tree were 

 distributed over Europe by its discoverer and grafted 

 on the male trees including those at Vienna and 

 Montpellier. In fact, all the fruiting trees in Europe 

 up to 1882, are believed to have originated by graft- 

 ing from the tree near Geneva. As a result the tree 

 at Montpellier produced perfect fruit for the first 

 time in Europe, in 1835. The original female tree at 

 Bourdigny was cut down before 1866 by order of a 

 new proprietor of the grounds who cared nothing for 

 trees. 



The introduction of the Maidenhair-tree to Amer- 

 ica is said to be due to William Hamilton who ob- 

 tained it from England in 1784 and planted it in his 

 garden at Woodlands, near Philadelphia, where it 

 grows to-day though the garden itself has become a 

 cemetery. In the first years of the 19th century it 

 was planted by Doctor Hosack at Hyde Park on 



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