THE STORY OF THE GINKGO 



the banks of the Hudson River. On the north side 

 of Boston Common grows a historic Ginkgo which is 

 possibly older than the tree at Woodlands and prob- 

 ably came direct from China. It is said to have 

 been a tree of "full size when Mr. Gardiner Greene 

 purchased the garden in 1798." The site of the 

 garden is now occupied by the Court House in Pem- 

 berton Square. After Mr. Greene's death in 1832, 

 the grounds were sold and the tree moved to its pres- 

 ent position in 1838. The city paid a portion of the 

 cost and each of Mr. Greene's children contributed 

 one hundred dollars. The tree when mov6d was 40 

 ft. tall and 4 ft. in girth of trunk. Those were times 

 of great financial stringency, and there was some 

 opposition to the spending of public money on mov- 

 ing a tree. The talk was considerable and the fa- 

 mous physician, Dr. Jacob Bigelow, a friend of 

 Gardiner Greene, and himself mainly responsible for 

 saving the tree, wrote a lengthy and amusing poem 

 on the incident, beginning: 



Thou queer, outlandish, fan-leaved tree, 

 Whose grandfather came o'er the sea 



A pilgrim of the ocean. 

 Didst thou expect to gather gear 

 By selling out thy chopsticks here? 



In China the Ginkgo as a planted tree is associated 

 with Chinese civilization almost throughout the 



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