Letter: Goethe's ginkgo

Sir: It may well be that Goethe had a ginkgo tree in his Weimar garden, as your correspondent David Leighton writes (letters, 3 December); there certainly was one in his garden in Jena, now part of the Botanic Garden there, said to have been planted by him in the late 18th century. I saw it in August 1992 - a sight of magnificent arboreal girth, height and beauty.

Yours faithfully,

NEIL PETERSEN

Cambridge

4 December