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the almond-like stone has a delicate flavor and is much esteemed by 
Chinese and Japanese. The Ginkgo was carried to Japan some twelve 
hundred years ago by Buddhist priests of China, and near some Jap- 
anese temples there are specimens fully one hundred feet high with 
stems six or seven feet in diameter. It reached Europe about the 
middle of the eighteenth century, and is supposed to have been first 
planted in this country in 1784 by Mr. William Hamilton in his famous 
garden in what is now West Philadelphia. It is now a common tree 
in this country. Bostonians of the last generation may remember Dr. 
Jacob Bigelow’s poem on the removal of the Ginkgo tree from Mr. 
Gardiner Green’s garden in Pemberton Square to Boston Common when 
this garden was given up in 1832 after Mr. Green’s death. This tree 
is said to have been forty feet high with a trunk a foot in diameter 
when it was moved, and to have been “of full size’’ when Mr. Green 
bought the Pemberton Square property in 1798. This tree is still 
standing on the Beacon Street mall nearly opposite the foot of Joy 
Street. It has not grown well, however, for many years, and it is 
not a handsome or a large tree for its age, probably never having 
recovered from the effects of the moving in 1832. One of the remark- 
able things about the Ginkgo-tree is the fact that although it has 
been undoubtedly cultivated by the Chinese for many centuries, the 
region where it grows naturally and spontaneously has remained 
unknown, travelers having failed to find any trees growing in the forest 
or anywhere except in the neighborhood of temples or shrines where 
they had evidently been planted. A year ago, however, Mr. F. N. 
Meyer, the well-known botanical explorer for the Department of Agri- 
culture, found the Ginkgo growing spontaneously in rich valleys over 
some ten square miles near Changhua Hsien, about seventy miles west 
of Hangchou, in the Chekiang province. There were many seedlings 
and the trees here were so common that they were cut for firewood, 
something which has never been seen before in China. It is by no 
means certain that this is the original home of the Ginkgo as these 
trees may all have descended from a planted tree. It is exceedingly 
interesting, whatever may be the history of these trees, to find that 
there is at least one place in China where the Ginkgo grows in the 
woods and reproduces itself spontaneously. Hangchou and Changhua 
Hsien are of easy access from Shanghai and it is remarkable that Mr. 
Meyer was the first botanist to visit this region. His visit was a for- 
tunate one, for besides the Ginkgo he made one of the most interesting 
discoveries a botanist has ever made in China — a Chinese Hickory-tree 
which has been described at the Arboretum as Carya cathayensis. 
Until last year the Hickory was supposed to be exclusively eastern 
American, as the Sassafras, the Tulip-tree and the Kentucky Coffee- 
tree, were supposed to be exclusively American, but these trees like 
the Hickory are now known to grow in China. 
This is an interesting time to visit the Arboretum. The foliage of 
trees and shrubs has never been finer, and the grass has never been 
greener at midsummer. Many plants, especially the Bush Honey- 
suckles and the Tartarian Maple {Acer tatarica), are covered with bril- 
liant fruits, and the great north meadow will soon be loaded with a 
yellow sheet of Goldenrods as the white flowers of the Meadow Rue, 
never so abundant as they are just now, begin to fade. 
These Bulletins will now be discontinued until the autumn. 
