THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
279 
THE MAIDENHAIR TREE. 
{Ginkgo biloba.) 
/"\F the many trees which are worth while because 
^^^ of their beauty or usefulness, perhaps no single 
one is less known or appreciated than the so-called 
maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba). The ginkgo deserves 
careful consideration. Certainly it would be hard 
to find another tree which is so free from both 
insect and fungous pests, stands the climate so well, 
and is apparently so unaffected by poisonous gases 
which are fatal to some of our most satisfactory trees 
Combining these necessary qualities with unusual 
beauty, it would seem that the maidenhair tree should 
be more widely used. 
Young maidenhair trees are tall and slender, re- 
sembling the Lombard}- poplar in type, but later hori- 
zontal branches appear which ultimately' cause the 
trees to assume the appearance of spreading oaks. 
Ginkgos in this country from fifty to seventy-five 
years old measure forty to sixty-five feet in height 
and have trunks with a girth of from five to ten feet. 
In the Missouri Botanical Garden there are a num- 
ber of fine specimens of this tree, and visitors are con- 
stantly commenting upon the singular character of 
their leaves, which are unlike those of any other 
American or European tree, reminding one of the 
maidenhair fern so much that the resemblance has 
given the ginkgo its common name. Although the 
ginkgo was at one time supposed to be a member of 
the pine family, the structure of the flowers, together 
with other peculiarities, has led to its placement in a 
separate division (the Ginkgoaceae) of the gymno- 
sperms. It is not an evergreen, the leaves turning a 
beautiful yellow in the late fall before falling. 
The maidenhair tree, together with the cycads, in- 
stead of following the method of fertilization in the 
higher plants, has retained the swimming anthero- 
zoids so characteristic of the ferns. The ginkgo and 
cycads thus form a most interesting bridge across the 
gulf which formerly was thought to separate the fern 
and fern-like plants from the seed-bearing plants. Al- 
though the habit and appearance of the tree are 
strongly suggestive of our deciduous flower and seed- 
bearing trees, the fertilizing apparatus is far more 
suggestive of the ferns and mosses, a reminder of the 
time when all plants were fitted for an aquatic habi- 
tat and provided with antherozoids possessing organs 
of locomotion with which to swim through the water 
to the egg cell. 
Probably there is no other existing tree to which 
Darwin's term of "living fossil" may be so truly applied 
as the ginkgo. It is apparently the sole survivor of a 
race which narrowly escaped extinction, the reason 
for which we can only vaguely speculate upon. While 
fossil remains, found in the Palaeozoic, have led some 
to assume that the maidenhair tree could be traced 
back to this era, it is not until we come to the Meso- 
zoic that the ancestry can be established with any de- 
gree of certainty. There is abundant evidence, how- 
ever, of the practically world-wide distribution of 
members of the ginkgos in the oldest of the Mesozoic 
floras, and the remains of the leaves as well as the 
flowers and seeds indicate a surprisingly close resem- 
blance to the existing maidenhair tree. It is as though 
a near relative of the Megatherium, or some other pre- 
historic monster, had managed in some unknown way 
to persist to the present date. 
Although at one time growing from Australia, Cape 
Colony, and South America to northern Europe and all 
over North America to Greenland, the ginkgo in the 
present epoch was apparently confined to China and 
Japan. Even here it is not believed to exist wild, in 
spite of the statement of Mrs. Bishop, in her "Un- 
trodden Paths of Japan," that she found forests of 
wild maidenhair trees. Wilson in his "A Naturalist 
in Western China" attributes the preservation of the 
ginkgo to the care of the priests. He says "The world 
at large does not realize how deeply it is indebted to 
religious communities for the preservation of many 
trees. In Europe, for example, most of the best va- 
rieties of pears originated in the gardens attached to 
religious establishments in France and Belgium and 
were introduced into England and other countries 
after the battle of Waterloo. In China, where every 
available bit of land is devoted to agriculture, quite a 
number of trees must long ago have become extinct 
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The Maiden-Hair or Ginkgo Tree. 
but for the timely intervention of the Buddhist and 
Taouist priests. The most noteworthy example of 
this benevolent preservation is the maidenhair tree 
(Ginkgo biloba). This strikingly beautiful tree is asso- 
ciated with temples and shrines, court gardens of pal- 
aces, and mansions of the wealthy throughout the 
length and breadth of China, and also in parts of 
Japan. But it is nowhere truly wild and is a relic of 
a very ancient flora." 
From the Orient the ginkgo has again been dis- 
tributed by cultivation until it is found over almost as 
wide an area as in Mesozoic times. It probably was 
brought to this country early in the last century, but 
no authentic account of its introduction can be found. 
The first tree which flowered in Europe appears to 
have been a male plant at Kew, which bore flowers fn 
1795. In France the ginkgo is commonly called Varbe 
aux quarante ecus, or "forty crowns free," for the fol- 
