GIXKGO BILOBA. 109 



kind, and whose resources of fuel and timber have always been 

 extremely restricted. Thus preserved "it stands alone, a perfect 

 stranger, in the midst of recent vegetable forms." 



The name, Giukgo was adopted by Linnaeus from Ksempfer, the first 

 European naturalist who saw and described the tree; but Sir J. E. Smith 

 altered the name to Salisburia in compliment to R. A. Salisbury, a 

 prominent British botanist of the early part of the nineteenth century, 

 on the ground that it was equally uncouth and barbarous. The alteration 

 was, however, soon afterwards objected to by the elder I)e Candolle as 

 opening a door to the needless multiplication of names. The original 

 name is now almost universally accepted. 



Ginkgo biloba. 



A tall tree, 50 100 feet high, with a cylindric or slightly tapering 

 trunk and alternate or scattered horizontal branches ; the secondary 

 branches and especially the branchlets usually irregularly disposed. 

 Bark of trunk and primary branches rough, more or less fissured in 

 old trees, dull greyish brown ; of branchlets, pale ash-brown and 

 smooth. Leaves deciduous, in fascicles of three five or more on 

 short alternate " spurs," variable in size ; the footstalks 1 3 inches 

 long, terete on the dorsal and furrowed on the ventral side ; the lamina 

 a fan-shaped expansion 2 -3 inches broad, of leathery texture and dull 

 ^Teen colour, with numerous veins of nearly etjual size diverging from 

 the top of the petiole and not connected by lateral reticulations ; the 

 blade is rendered two-lobed by a cleft in the apical margin which varies- 

 much in depth according as the leaves are on sterile or fertile branches, 

 being very shallow or almost obliterated on the latter. Inflorescence- 

 dioecious. Staminate flowers sub-pendulous in umbels of three six on 

 the ends of short arrested branchlets or " spurs," and intermixed with 

 leaves ; anther lobes two, pendulous and divergent. Ovuliferous flowers, 

 in pairs on the apex of slender footstalks, each flower consisting of a 

 single erect ovule arising from a cap-shaped dilatation of the axis. 

 Fruit drupe-like, the fleshy outer covering of a greenish orange colour 

 enclosing a hard woody mesocarp or shell that contains the seed.* 



Ginkgo biloba, Linnteus, Mantissa loc. cit. supra (1771). Tlumberg, Fl. Jap. 358- 

 (1784). Carriere, Traite Comf. ed. II. 711. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 506. 

 Siebold and Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. II. 72, t. 136. Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 XVIII. 500; and Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 210. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 189,. 

 with figs. 



Salisburia adiantifolia, Smith in Trans. Linn. Soc. III. 330 (1797). Aiton, Hort. 

 Kew. ed. 2, Vol. V. 304 (1813). London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2094 (1838), with 

 figs. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 237 (1847). Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 373 (1875). 



Eng. Maidenhair-tree. Fr. Arbre aux quarante ecus.f Germ. Ginkgobamo. 

 Ital. Albero capilvenere. Jap. Ich<>. 



The following varieties are occasionally seen in cultivation : 



macrophylla. Leaves much larger than in the common form, 

 and often divided into three five lobes which are occasionally sub- 

 divided into smaller lobules. 



* The ripe seeds of Ginkgo, Cephalotaxus and Torreya have a close structural resemblance 

 to cadi other and to Cycas. These genera therefore form one of the links connecting the 

 Cyeads with the Taxacese. 



t The origin of this curious name is related by London in the Arboretum et Fruticetunt 

 Britaiinicum, IV. 2096. 



