14b 



The Garden Magazine, November, 1919 



good many of them are about 48 feet tall; in girth they vary 

 from 2 and one half feet to 7 and one half feet. 



On the massive lower branches of old Ginkgo trees thick, 

 peg-like structures develop which grow downward and on 

 reaching the ground develop true roots from their apex and 

 give off branches above. The growths are often very num- 

 erous and are sometimes as much as from 12 to 16 feet long 

 and 1 foot in diameter. This phenomenon is rare in China 

 and Korea but is common in Japan where the growths are 

 styled " chi-chi," that is, teats or nipples. Their true charac- 

 ter is not properly understood but evidently they serve to 

 prolong the life of the tree by developing new stems and 

 branches. From the trunks of old trees many sprouts develop 

 which sometimes form a veritable thicket of ascending stems. 

 If the top of the tree be broken, as frequently happens in the 

 long life of the tree, new shoots arise, grow upward, and make 

 a new crown. The vitality of the tree is marvellous and 



Mother Nature seems to have endowed it with a thousand 

 and one means of maintaining its existence both individually 

 and collectively. I never saw a dead Ginkgo during the 

 twenty years 1 have travelled in the Far East. Japanese 

 gardeners raise many seedlings in a pot or pan and use them 

 for table decorations, but as a dwarfed tree the Ginkgo is 

 not much in request in Japan. 



Apart from the typical tree there is a form (pendula) with 

 pendent branchlets, another (fastigiata) with upright-growing 

 branches; a third (variegata) has leaves blotched and streaked 

 with pale yellow, and a fourth (macrophylla) is characterized 

 by its larger, more deeply cut leaves. The pendulous and 

 upright forms are worth cultivating. 



That the Ginkgo has been closely identified with Buddhist 

 institutions from early times and planted by adherents and 

 missionaries of this religion wherever they have obtained a 

 stronghold in the Orient is beyond question. It may not be 



too much to say that 

 its very existence to- 

 day is due to the ad- 

 herents of this faith. 

 Very probably they 

 found it in some way 

 associated with Tao- 

 ism and other forms of 

 nature worship which 

 were current in China 

 when first they estab- 

 lished their faith there, 

 and with the tolerant 

 Catholicism that char- 

 acterized them, they 

 adopted it for their 

 own. Its edible nuts 

 played no unimpor- 

 tant part too, it may 

 be inferred, in induc- 

 ing them to protect 

 and plant it. The 

 Ginkgo is in fact the 

 oldest cultivated nut 

 tree. 



SYMMETRY WITH 

 YEARS 



The same tree shown on 

 page 144, which has grown 

 old enough to lose the ado- 

 lescent awkwardness that 

 distinguishes the young 

 Ginkgo biloba 



