PARK AND CEMETERY 
141 
Garden Plants— Their Geography— XCIV, 
Coniferales Continued. 
Podocarpus , next to the Pines, is the largest genus 
of Conifers. Several botanists have divided it intG 
GINKGO BILOBA, WASHINGTON, D. C.; PLANTED 1875. 
four sections, but Professor Philippi has made one 
(Stachycarpus) a genus called Prumnopitys. Maybe 
he had unusual means of judging, but it would have 
been better to decrease rather than increase names, 
even though the pulpy fruit is borne on spikelets 
and has a tough skin. If three parts of all the names 
in print could be burnt up it would be a mercy. About 
sixty species have been described under the genus, 
which is poorly defined, for many forms have been 
named without any critical examination of flowers or 
fruit. Podocarps constitute one of the few coniferous 
genera which cross the equator, and are found in 
Australasia, South America and South Africa, in 
Japan, China and the mountains of tropical Asia, and 
in those of eastern and western Africa and the West 
Indies. They are, therefore, for the most part best 
adapted to the warm sections of the United States. 
P. argotaenia, P. Nageia and its varieties, P. Japonica, 
and P. macrophylla, which is probably the most 
hardy, are Chinese or Japanese. P. elata is a fine 
Australian tree of 80 or ioo feet; P. alpina is found 
in the same country and in Tasmania; P. neriifolia 
is a Himalayan tree ; P. Purdieana, a large tree in 
Jamaica, and P. andina, the Prumnopitys of Philippi, 
has yellowish or whitish, well-flavored fruit. 
Dacrydium, in twelve species, are distributed 
through the Malayan peninsula and islands, and 
through the Fijis, New Caledonia, Tasmania, New 
Zealand, and also in Chili. Some are large, 200-foot 
trees, resembling cypresses in habit ; some have pendu- 
lous branches, while some New Zealand kinds are 
said to be “no bigger than mosses.” 
Phyllocladus is a remarkable genus, in three or 
four species, natives of Australia, Tasmania and Bor- 
neo. They are called “celery-topped pines” by the 
colonists. The flowers and fruits are borne on the 
margins of leaf-like “branches” in clusters or singly, 
in the manner of Phyllocactus. P. trichomanoides is 
a handsome tree of about fifty feet. 
Ginkgo biloba is a remarkable deciduous monotypic 
tree from China. It has several varieties, having 
leaves which are are variegated, or with deeper, larger, 
or more lobes, or with a more upright or pendulous 
habit than the type. The tree is hardy to Ottawa 
and thrives over a wider territory in North America 
than any other deciduous conifer. At the South it 
sometimes suffers from late frosts. Prof. Galloway 
informs me the trees at Washington had their 
leaves frozen off this spring and have borne no 
fruit. It has leaves resembling somewhat Adian- 
tum reniforme and veined in a similar manner. 
Hence it is called the “maiden-hair tree.” 
It did not make its way to any extent in 
the States until the avenue at Washington shown 
in the illustration began to develop. Perhaps as I 
know how it came to be planted I may record it. I 
did so, briefly, in the “Country Gentleman” years 
ago, but wish to pay further tribute to the sagacity 
of the late William Saunders, for it isn't every man 
Courtesy Samuel Moon. 
TAXUS BACCATA TAXUS BACCATA 
ERECTA. AUREA. 
in a similar position who has sense enough to take 
a hint, although I have often mistakenly supposed 
