CHAP.. CXI I.

TAXa'cETE. SAI.ISUu'itLd.

2097

and, when employed in forming the gardens at Bagatelle and Monceau in1783 (see Encyc. of Gnrd., edit. 1835, p. 88.), I always sent to M. Gaussensome of all the new plants I got; and these were numerous, as I was thenforming a collection of trees and plants at Monceau for the late Duke ofOrleans. The last packet of trees that I sent to M. Gaussen was in 1790 ;and among9t them was a plant of Ginkgo biloba, which I had reared atMonceau. I have M. Gaussen’s letter, wherein he writes me, from Geneva,‘ I have received a parcel of plants (29 species) by M. Merlin, for which Ibeg your acceptance of my sincere thanks,’ &c.; dated Geneva, Dec. 11. 1790;and signed ‘ Gaussen de Chapeaurouge.’ ” ( Blakie in Gard. Mag., vol. xii.p. 266.) Mr. Blakie, whose interesting communication on this subject willbe found in the Gardener’s Magazine, vol. xii. p. 266., was not, and, indeed,could not be, aware whether the plants brought by him from England, andpropagated at Monceau, were male or female ; but, as those originally intro-duced from Japan were raised from imported nuts, there can be very littledoubt that both sexes exist in various parts of Britain, as well as of theContinent. After the discovery made by M. De Candolle of the female plant,cuttings were distributed by him, from the Botanic Garden at Geneva, to thedifferent Botanic Gardens of Europe, and, among others, to that of Mont-pelier. The first sent perished; but, in 1830, M. Delille, director of the gar-den, received, through his colleague, M. Vialars, two cuttings from M. De Can-dolle, which he grafted on two young male stocks, and which produced vigorousshoots. From some of these shoots, in 1832, M. Delille covered a maletree, 50 ft. high, with grafts; and the year following the tree produced oneimperfect fruit ; which was followed in, 1835, by other perfect ones, fromwhich young plants have been raised. We saw a female tree raised fromone of the cuttings distributed by M. De Candolle, in the Botanic Garden atStrasburg, in 1828: there is another at Kew, raised from a cutting receivedthere in 1818; and there are some young plants at Messrs. Loddiges’s, raisedfrom cuttings received by them from M. De Candolle, in 1835; we, also, possessone obtained from Kew, which we had grafted on the summit of a maletree in 1831. M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, in his Note Historique sur leGinkgo ( Annales de la Soc. Hurt.., tom. xv. p. 93.), expresses regret, thatneither the directors of the Jardin des Plantes, nor the proprietors of anyof the private gardens of Paris, have, as far as he knows, availed them-selves of the opportunity of obtaining plants of the female salisburia; andwe may make the same remark with reference to the Horticultural So-ciety’s Garden, and all the London nurserymen except Messrs. Loddiges.He ingeniously conjectures, however, that some of the large trees inFrance, that have not yet shown flowers, may be females; because manymales, not quite so large as they are, have flowered; and because it is wellknown that, in dioecious trees generally, the females are some years laterin producing their blossoms than the males. In Great Britain, the ginkgo,or, as it is here called, the salisburia, has been most extensively propagatedand distributed; but chiefly from the stool in the Mile End Nursery, whichwe know with certainty to be a male plant, as a tree propagated from it,and now standing in an adjoining garden, was discovered by us in flower in1835, and producing only male blossoms. (See Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 380.)Some female plants may, however, exist in the country; because it is un-certain how many were originally raised from nuts by Gordon. Messrs.Loddiges inform us that, about 180L, they raised one plant of Salisburiafrom the nut; but they are uncertain to whom they sold it. In a garden nearMilan, Signor Manetti informs us, there is a female salisburia, which flowersevery year. The singularity and beauty of the foliage of this tree insure ita place in every good collection; and there are accordingly many fine speci-mens both in England and on the Continent; the dimensions of some of themost remarkable of which will be found in our Statistics.

Properties and Uses. The wood of the ginkgo is said by Kaempfer to belight, soft, and weak; but Loiseleur Deslongchamps describes it as of a yel-

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