THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



and Shiba parks, but the finest I saw grows in Koy- 

 enji temple grounds and is about 85 ft. tall and 28 

 ft. in girth of trunk. In the grounds of the Zan- 

 pukuji Temple in Azabu, Tokyo, there is a grand 

 old tree with a trunk 30 ft. in girth but the top has 

 been broken off by a storm. In the Imperial Botanic 

 Gardens in Koishikawa, Tokyo, grows the Ginkgo- 

 tree on which Professor S. Hirase carried out the 

 experiments in 1896 which led to his remarkable dis- 

 covery of the motile male sperms. At the Hachiman 

 shrine in Kama.kura there is a Ginkgo said to be 

 more than a thousand years old, about 20 feet 

 in girth of trunk. In the old capitol of Kyoto the 

 tree is common, and in the courtyard of the Nishi- 

 Hongwanji there is an old tree, much broken by 

 storms and some 1 5 feet in girth of trunk, which is 

 supposed to protect the temple against fire by dis- 

 charging showers of water whenever a conflagration in 

 the vicinity threatens danger ! In the old 8th century- 

 capital, Nara, and quite near the hotel, there is an ex- 

 traordinary Ginkgo out of which is growing a Keaki 

 tree (Zelkova serrata) with a trunk 8 feet in girth. It 

 evidently originated from a seed planted in a fissure 

 of the Ginkgo-tree by the wind or by a bird. The 

 trees are about equal height (75 feet) and the com- 

 posite trunk is 1 5 feet in girth. It is entitled to rank 

 among the marvels of Japan for it looks as if two 



60 



