Rising 40 feet (12.2 meters) behind a modest brick house in this Detroit suburb is an apparent descendant of one of the world's most famous trees. In 1973, Stella Barna planted a 2-foot (61-centimeter) sapling behind her home. It was a seedling of the Tree of Hippocrates, a large Oriental plane tree on the Greek island of Kos under which Hippocrates is said to have taught the beginnings of modern medicine about 2,400 years ago. Now, Barna says, a genetic copy of the tree should be returned to its rightful owner: Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. Thirty-five years ago Barna was the secretary to the medical school's dean, Robert Coye, when the institution was offered a precious gift: a seedling of the Tree of Hippocrates. According to dated letters displayed by Barna, the donor was the International Hippocratic Foundation, which was distributing the trees to drum up publicity and money to build a conference center on Kos. The medical school received the tree in June 1973. But, Barna says, it wasn't planted because officials feared extensive construction on campus would harm the sapling. After sitting in the dean's office for several months, Barna says, "It was obvious something needed to be done with it, so they told me to take it home." She planted it behind her garage, and had it moved to the middle of the adjacent backyard a few years later when she had landscaping done. "I knew it would need more space," she said. Now, she wants to return it to Wayne State. After all, she says, that's where it was supposed to go in the first place, to inspire young doctors studying to follow in Hippocrates' footsteps. In July, she called David Milarch, the 58-year-old co-founder of the Copemish-based Champion Tree Project, which clones the world's largest and most historic trees to preserve their strong genes. Milarch, who was in the Detroit area recently to take samples from a centuries-old pear tree in Grosse Pointe, went to Barna's home in Warren to see the tree for himself. Standing in the backyard, he touched its shedding bark and spoke excitedly. "It's living history," he said. There are plenty of wannabe Hippocrates trees out there, he said, but Barna's documentation and the tree's type – a Eurasian species distinct from the related American sycamore – make him certain Barna's tree is a genuine seedling of the original.
