2096 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



Salisburicr, as it is that by which the tree is most generally known in England. 

 It was planted in Rouen in 177G, and taken to Paris in 1780; it was sent 

 to Schonbrunn, by Messrs. Loddiges, in 1781; to North America, by Mr. 

 Hamilton, in 1784; and to Montpelier, in 1788, by Broussonet, who received 

 it from Sir Joseph Banks. The manner in which this tree was introduced 

 into the gardens of Paris is curious, and was thus related by M. Andre Thonin, 

 when delivering his annual Cows d' Agriculture Pratique in the Jardin des 

 Plantes : — In 1780, a Parisian amateur, named Petigny, made a voyage to 

 London, in order to see the principal gardens ; and among the number of 

 those he visited was that of a commercial gardener, who possessed five young 

 plants of Ginkgo biloba, which was still rare in England, and which the 

 gardener pretended that he then alone possessed. These five plants were 

 raised from nuts that he had received from Japan; and he set a high price on 

 them. However, after an abundant dejeune t and plenty of wine, he sold to 

 M. Petigny these young trees of Ginkgo, all growing in the same pot, for 

 25 guineas, which the Parisian amateur paid immediately, and lost no time in 

 taking away his valuable acquisition. Next morning, the effects of the wine 

 being dissipated, the English gardener sought out his customer, and offered 

 him 25 guineas for one plant of the five he had sold the day before. This, 

 however, was refused by M. Pe'tigny, who carried the plants to France ; and, 

 as each of the five had cost him about 120 francs, or 40 crowns (quarante 

 ecus), this was the origin of the name applied to this tree in France, of 

 arbre aux quarante 'ecus ; and not because it was originally sold for 120 francs 

 a plant. Almost all the ginkgo trees in France have been propagated from 

 these five, imported from England by M. Petigny. He gave one of them to 

 the Jardin des Plantes, which was kept for many years in a pot, and preserved 

 through the winter in the green-house, till 1792; when it was planted out by 

 M. Andre Thouin, who gave the above relation in his lectures : but, as the 

 situation was not altogether favourable to it, the plant was not much above 

 40 ft. in height in 1834, and had not then flowered. There is another 

 ginkgo in the Jardin des Plantes, which was raised by layering from one of 

 the four others imported by Petigny. Though much later planted than the 

 other, yet, being in a better situation, it is about the same size, though it also 

 has not flowered. The first ginkgo which flowered in Europe appears to have 

 been a male plant, at Kew, in 1795; and shortly after, Mr. Dillwyn informs 

 us, a male plant flowered at Ham House, in Essex. In the Botanic 

 Garden at Pisa, a tree, which had not been much more than 20 years planted, 

 flowered in 1807; and, in 1812, one flowered in the Botanic Garden at Mont- 

 pelier, and another in that of Rouen. Hitherto, only the male blossoms of the 

 tree had been seen ; and it was believed that the female did not exist in Europe. 

 De Candolle, however, in 1814, discovered the female flowers on a tree at 

 Bourdigny, near Geneva ; and it was from these flowers that L. C. Richard 

 was enabled to give the description and figure of the flowers, which will be 

 found in his Memoires sur les Coniferes, published by his son, Achille Richard, 

 in 1826. The fruit formed ; but, there being no male tree near, it did not come 

 to maturity. This tree, Professor De Candolle, in his account of it in the 

 BibBotheque Univcrsclle de Geneve, torn. vii. p. 138., conjectures to have been 

 planted between 1707 and 1797; because, he says, the former proprietor of 

 Bourdigny, M. Gaussen de Chapeaurouge, a zealous amateur, who sent for 

 many exotic seeds and trees from England, commenced his plantations in 1767, 

 and continued them for 30 years afterwards. Fortunately, we are able to indi- 

 cate the age of this tree, with an approach to certainty, through the voluntary 

 of our venerable correspondent, Mr. Blakie, who went from Eng- 

 land to Prance and Switzerland, as a botanical collector, and resided for 

 time at Bourdigny in 1775, when he was collecting plants upon the 

 Alp* for l)rs. Pitcairn and Fothergill of London. Mr. Blakie deposited 

 the plant! be 'ollected m the garden of M. Gaussen, till he could find an op- 

 portunity of sending them to England. "When I returned to France, in 

 1776," sayi Mr. Blakie, " I continued in correspondence with M. Gaussen; 



