249 



Genus GINKGO, Kaempfer. 



>[Amocnitatem exoticarum, p. 811, 1712. Linnajus, Mantissa Plantarum, 

 p. 313, 1771.] 



1. Ginkgo digitata (Brongniart). 



2. Ginkgo whitbiensis, Nathorst. 



The maidenhair - tree was first descrihed under the name 

 Ginkgo by Kasmpfer in 1712 ; ! this author published a drawing 

 of a shoot and ovule, and spoke of the plant as Ginkgo or Ginan, 

 vulgo Itsjo : "arbor nucifera folio adiantino." Linnaeus adopted 

 Ka3mpfer's designation, and referred to the plant as Ginkgo biloba. 

 In 1797 Smith 2 placed this species among the Conifers; he 

 proposed the generic name Salisburia and a new specific designation 

 adiantifolia in place of the "uncouth name Gingko and the 

 incorrect specific term biloba" Since 1797 the names Ginkgo 

 biloba and Salisburia adiantifolia have both remained in common 

 use. Among the numerous references to Gingko in the literature 

 of the present century we find several records of the development 

 of both male and female flowers in trees grown at Montpelier, 

 Vienna, Kew, and elsewhere. By Richard, Endlicher, and several 

 other authors, Ginkgo has been placed in the family Taxineae ; 

 but Eichler, in an important contribution to Martius' Flora 

 Urasiliensis, proposed to include the genus in a separate tribe, the 

 Salisburyeae. 3 In 1840 Zuccarini 4 called attention to the resem- 

 blance of the young leaves of Ginkgo to those of the African 

 Cycad Encephalartos horridus, and instituted a comparison between 

 the short shoots of the maidenhair - tree and the main stem of 

 Cycads. During the past few decades new facts have gradually 

 been brought to light demonstrating other and more important 

 resemblances between Ginkgo and the Cycads, and finally the 

 discovery of motile spermatozoids in both Cycads and Ginkgo 



1 Kamipfer (1712), p. 811. A more complete historical sketch of Ginkgo is 

 given in a recent paper by Miss Gowan and myself : vide Seward & Gowan 

 400 2 ), p. 111. 



2 Smith (1797). 



3 Eichler (52). 

 Zuccarini (40). 



