Loudon relates a curious tale as to the manner in which a French amateur became possessed of it. The Frenchman, it appears, came to England, and paid a visit to an English nurseryman, who was the possessor of five plants, raised from Japanese seeds. The hospitable Englishman entertained the Frenchman only too well. He allowed his commercial instincts to be blunted by wine, and sold to his guest the five plants for the sum of 25 guineas. Next morning, when time for reflection came, the Englishman attempted to regain one only of the plants for the same sum that the Frenchman had given for all five, but without avail. The plants were conveyed to France, where as each plant had cost about 40 crowns, _ecus_, the tree got the name of _arbre a quarante ecus_. This is the story as given by Loudon, who tells us that Andre Thouin used to relate the fact in his lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, whether as an illustration of the perfidy of Albion is not stated. The tree is dioecious, bearing male catkins on one plant, female on another. All the female trees in Europe are believed to have originated from a tree near Geneva, of which Auguste Pyramus de Candolle secured grafts, and distributed them throughout the Continent. Nevertheless, the female tree is rarely met with, as compared with the male; but it is quite possible that a tree which generally produces male flowers only may sometimes bear female flowers only. We have no certain evidence of this in the case of the Gingkgo, but it is a common enough occurrence in other dioecious plants, and the occurrence of a fruiting specimen near Philadelphia, as recently recorded by Mr. Meehan, may possibly be attributed to this cause. The tree of which we give a figure is growing at Broadlands, Hants, and is about 40 feet in height, with a trunk that measures 7 feet in girth at 3 feet from the ground, with a spread of branches measuring 45 feet. These dimensions have been considerably exceeded in other cases. In 1837 a tree at Purser's Cross measured 60 feet and more in height. Loudon himself had a small tree in his garden at Bayswater on which a female branch was grafted. It is to be feared that this specimen has long since perished. We have already alluded to its deciduous character, in which it is allied to the larch. It presents another point of resemblance both to the larch and the cedar in the short spurs upon which both leaves and male catkins are borne, but these contracted branches are mingled with long extension shoots; there seems, however, no regular alternation between the short and the long shoots, at any rate the _rationale_ of their production is not understood, though in all probability a little observation of the growing plant would soon clear the matter up.