2096

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

Salisbury, as it is that by which the tree is most generally known in England.It was planted in Rouen in 1776, and taken to Paris in 1780; it was sentto Schdnbrunn, by Messrs. Loddiges, in 1781; to North America, by Mr.Hamilton, in 1784; and to Montpelier, in 1788, by Broussonet, who receivedit from Sir Joseph Banks. The manner in which this tree was introducedinto the gardens of Paris is curious, and was thus related by M. Andre Thouin,when delivering his annual Cours d’Agriculture Pratique in the Jardin desPlantes: — In 1780, a Parisian amateur, named Petigny, made a voyage toLondon, in order to see the principal gardens; and among the number ofthose he visited was that of a commercial gardener, who possessed five youngplants of Ginkgo biloba, which was still rare in England, and which thegardener pretended that he then alone possessed. These five plants wereraised from nuts that he had received from Japan; and he set a high price onthem. However, after an abundant dcjeune , and plenty of wine, he sold toM. Petigny these young trees of Ginkgo, all growing in the same pot, for25 guineas, which the Parisian amateur paid immediately, and lost no time intaking away his valuable acquisition. Next morning, the effects of the winebeing dissipated, the English gardener sought out his customer, and offeredhim 25 guineas for one plant of the five he had sold the day before. This,however, was refused by M. Petigny, who carried the plants to France ; and,as each of the five had cost him about 120 francs, or 40 crowns ( quaranteecus'), this was the origin of the name applied to this tree in France, ofarbre aux quarante ‘ecus ; and not because it was originally sold for 120 francsa plant. Almost all the ginkgo trees in France have been propagated fromthese five, imported from England by M. Petigny'. He gave one of them tothe Jardin des Plantes, which was kept for many years in a pot, and preservedthrough the winter in the green-house, till 1792; when it was planted out byM. Andre Thouin, who gave the above relation in his lectures : but, as thesituation was not altogether favourable to it, the plant was not much above40 ft. in height in 1834, and had not then flowered. There is anotherginkgo in the Jardin des Plantes, which was raised by layering from one ofthe four others imported by Petigny. Though much later planted than theother, yet, being in a better situation, it is about the same size, though it alsohas not flowered. The first ginkgo which flowered in Europe appears to havebeen a male plant, at Kew, in 1795; and shortly after, Mr. Dillwyn informsus, a male plant flowered at Ham House, in Essex. In the BotanicGarden at Pisa, a tree, which had not been much more than 20 years planted,flowered in 1807; and, in 1812, one flowered in the Botanic Garden at Mont-pelier, and another in that of Rouen. Flitherto, only the male blossoms of thetree had been seen; and it was believed that the female did not exist in Europe.I)e Candolle, however, in 1814, discovered the female flowers on a tree atBourdigny, near Geneva; and it was from these flowers that L. C. Richardwas enabled to give the description and figure of the flowers, which will befound in his Memoircs sur les Coniferes, published by his son, Achille Richard,in 1826. The fruit formed; but, there being no male tree near, it did not cometo maturity. This tree, Professor De Candolle, in his account of it in theBibliothcque Universelle de Geneve, tom. vii. p. 138., conjectures to have beenplanted between 1767 and 1797; because, he says, the former proprietor ofBourdigny, M. Gaussen de Chapeaurouge, a zealous amateur, who sent formany exotic seeds and trees from England, commenced his plantations in 1767,and continued them for 30 years afterwards. Fortunately, w.e are able to indi-cate the age of this tree, with an approach to certainty, through the voluntaryassistance of our venerable correspondent, Mr. Blakie, who went from Eng-land to France and Switzerland, as a botanical collector, and resided forsome time at Bourdigny in 1775, when he was collecting plants upon theAlps for Drs. Pitcairn and Fothergill of London. Mr. Blakie depositedthe plants he collected in the garden of M. Gaussen, till he could find an op-portunity of sending them to England. “ When I returned to France, in1776,” says Mr. Blakie, “ I continued in correspondence with M. Gaussen;