GinkGo. Maidenhair Tree. 
(Family Ginkgoaceae). 
Gray-barked trees of rather coni- 
cal habit but usually with irregul- 
arly placed exceptionally large 
branches: deciduous. Twigs mode- 
rate, rounded, with quickly shred- 
ding outer bark: pith rather small, 
somewhat 3-sided, brownish, 
spongy. Buds solitary, moderate, 
sessile, round-ovoid or hemispher- 
ical, with about 3 exposed scales, 
usually developing into blunt 
spurs. Leaf-scars alternate, crowd- 
ed on the spurs but separated else- 
where, crescent-shaped or trans- 
versely elliptical, low, moderately 
small: bundle-traces 2:  stipule- 
sears lacking. (Salisburia.) 
The maidenhair tree possesses 
peculiar interest as the sole rep- 
resentative of its family, and in 
being essentially a species which 
has been preserved only through cultivation. Except for the 
even more primitive cycads, of which several genera are to 
be found in greenhouses and are used for formal effects in 
the warmer parts of the world, it is the only Spermatophyte 
which possesses ciliated male gametes,—a character common 
to all fernworts and mossworts. 
Winter-character references:—Blakeslee & Jarvis, 333, 
382, pl.; BOsemann, 68; Otis, 2; Schneider, f. 57, 64; Shirasawa, 
265, pl. 9. The contrast between long shoots and spurs is 
discussed by Collins in the sixth volume of The Plant World. 
Twigs buff or gray: buds light brown. G. biloba. 
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