356 FLORA AND SYLVA. 



THE GREATER TREES OF THE 

 NORTHERN FOREST.— No. 21. 

 THE MAIDENHAIR TREE {Gink- 

 go bilobd) . 



From whatever point of view regarded, 

 this is one of the most mysterious, beau- 

 tiful, and distinct of hardy ornamental 

 trees. It is of value to planters for its 

 graceful form and foliage, singularly un- 

 like that of any other tree ; it interests 

 the botanist as being allied to the coni- 

 fers yet not of them, differing widely as 

 it does from nearly all in its deciduous 

 leaves, its lack of resin, and its peculiar 

 flowers and fruit; while to an even wider 

 circle there appeals the mystery of its 

 early history, summed up in the fact that 

 — unknown as a wild tree, it is regarded 

 as the last trace of an extinct type of 

 vegetation, preserved to us by its own 

 hardihood and vast endurance from a 

 dimly remote past. True the tree is 

 common enough in the Far East, where 

 it is said to have spread from China to 

 Japan with the Buddhist faith many 

 centuries ago, and is nowfrequentinthe 

 temple gardens and valued for its fruit. 

 Eastern travellers also tell of Ginkgoes 

 measuring up to 40 feet round and of a 

 great age, to be seen here and there in 

 the interior of northern China, but these 

 are all under cultivation, and if yet ex- 

 isting as a wild tree it must be amid the 

 mountain fastnesses of Mongolia and 

 Manchuria, the vegetation of which re- 

 main in a great measure unknown. 



Towards the close of the seventeenth 

 century the Maidenhair Tree was seen by 

 Kaempfer, in Japan, and was brought to 

 Europe (probably by Dutch merchants) 

 some forty years later, being first planted 



atUtrechtabout 1730; it was still longer 

 in reaching Britain, where the earliest 

 plants were raised from seed from Japan, 

 and grown upon walls. The two sexes 

 are apart in the Maidenhair Tree and, 

 as a good many years elapse before they 

 mature, it was long before the first tree 

 flowered in Europe in 1795, followed 

 at intervals by others, but all proved to 

 be males and consequently sterile until 

 a single female was found to be grow- 

 ing near Geneva, and fertile trees were 

 at length secured by grafting its shoots 

 upon the male trees established in va- 

 rious parts. 



The Ginkgo is beautiful at 



Distinct Beauty. n . . 



all seasons in its erect and 

 graceful habit, with widely-spaced limbs 

 at first rising but when mature gently 

 drooping in wide spreading curves. Its 

 appearance is always impressive, the 

 more so in early autumn when the entire 

 tree takes a golden tinge, rendering it 

 yet more conspicuous. When old it fre- 

 quently exceeds 1 00 feet in height, with 

 a massive trunk several feet in diameter 

 covered with rough grey bark, deeply 

 fissured. Standing alone upon a lawn 

 j there is that in its appearance which 

 I singles it out at once from other trees, 

 and, as it is not easily injured by ex- 

 posure, it may, at least in many places, 

 be planted in a commanding position 

 where its effect is most striking. The 

 leaf is of vivid yellow-green and broadly 

 triangular, in shape very like the blunted 

 leaflets of Adiantum trapeziforme, 

 slightly notched or lobed,and thickened 

 around the edges. The flowers are not 

 showy but the fruits, borne freely upon 

 fertile trees, are conspicuous and like a 



