THE MAIDENHAIR TREE — SEWARD 443 



are characteristic of many extinct members of the family; they are 

 similar to the dwarf shoots of larches and cedars (Cedrvs), and to the 

 deciduous and smaller shoots of pines. 



Male and female reproductive organs are borne on separate trees. 

 It is possible to obtain both kinds of "flower" on one tree by grafting 

 a female branch on to a male tree: this operation was successfully 

 performed some years ago on the large male tree at Kew. My friend, 

 the Rev. Prof. A. C. Moule of Cambridge, tells me that he discovered 

 a passage in an old Chinese book advising the planting of male and 

 female seeds close together in order to ensure fertilization at a later 

 stage. This implies an uncanny power of distinguishing male from 

 female even in the seeds. The male flowers — as it is convenient to 

 call the reproductive shoots — are loose catkins bearing on a slender 

 axis several short stamens, each of which has two or rarely three or even 

 four pollen-sacs. The female shoots are longer and larger, each 

 usually bearing a pair of ovules which develop into fleshy yellow seeds 

 as large as cherries. In the Far East the maidenhair tree is spoken 

 of as the silver apricot. Within the fleshy covering a hard shell, gen- 

 erally with a prominent median keel, encloses and protects the embryo 

 and the store of food prepared by parent for offspring. The kernel 

 (embryo and food) is eaten in China and Japan as a delicacy: the 

 outer flesh is nauseous. 



Ginkgo, despite the difference in foliage, was formerly included 

 with the yew (Taxus) in the Taxineae, one of the families in another 

 group of naked-seeded trees, the conifers. About 40 years ago a 

 Japanese botanist, Hirase, discovered that the sperms are free- 

 swimming bodies of relatively gigantic size, provided with innumer- 

 able lashing cilia in marked contrast to the passive and microscopic- 

 ally minute male nuclei of conifers. In view of this fundamental 

 peculiarity, and having regard to other characters not found in coni- 

 fers, a new family and a new group, the Ginkgoales, were instituted 

 for this isolated, aberrant, and primitive genus of naked-seeded plants. 

 Thus Ginkgo came to be regarded as the single representative not 

 only of a genus and family but of a group of Gymnosperms. There 

 are many interesting points connected with the structure of the seed 

 and other technical questions which need not be discussed as they 

 have no direct bearing on the more general considerations with which 

 this article is concerned. Ginkgo resembles conifers in the main 

 structural features of the wood; it is indeed very difficult to decide 

 whether or not some examples of petrified fossil wood should be 

 assigned to the Ginkgo family or to the conifers. 



THE PRESENT HOME OF GINKGO 



Some botanists believe that the maidenhair tree is still living as a 

 wild tree in certain Chinese forests; others are definitely of opinion 



