CEPHALOTAXUS 1 1 1 



the next twenty years every tree observed to flower in Europe was of the 

 same sex. At length, in 1814, the elder De Candolle detected ovuliferous 

 flowers on a tree near Geneva, and subsequently cuttings from this 

 tree were distributed among the Botanic Gardens of Europe, and in 

 places male trees were grafted with them and they afterwards bore fruit. 

 In the Botanic Garden at Vienna the bud of a female tree was 

 grafted on a small male tree, and a lateral branch was developed from 

 it ; at the present time it is a large tree with a number of branches 

 bearing staminate flowers and a large branch bearing ovuliferous flowers. 

 The most notable thing about the tree is, that the grafted branch 

 follows a course of development which is obviously different from 

 that of the stock. Every year in the spring it puts forth foliage 

 about fourteen days later than the male branches, and in the autumn 

 the leaves are still green long after the rest have turned yellow and 

 for the most part fallen off.* In Great Britain the practice of grafting 

 trees of one sex with scions of the other appears to have been 

 generally neglected, and in consequence a Ginkgo tree in fruit in this 

 country is rarely if ever seen. 



Xot much can be said of the economic value of the Ginkgo. 

 Kaempfer records in his " Amoenitates " that the nuts were highly esteemed 

 by the Japanese and eaten as a dessert, a practice which has continued 

 down to the present time. The fleshy covering has a rancid and 

 disagreeable odour, and the flavour of the kernel is by no means 

 inviting to the European taste. The timber is not known to be 

 applied to any economic purpose ; the wood is yellowish, soft and 

 l^'ittle, and destitute of resin. 



( 



CEPHALOTAXUS. 



Sieltold and Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. Fam. Nat. II. 108 (1842). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 

 1-M (1847). Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 502 (1868). Bentliam and Hooker, Gen. 

 Plant. III. 430 (1881). Eichler in Engler and Prantl. Nat. Pfl. Fam. 109 (1887). 

 Masters in Journ.- Linn. Soc. XXX. 4 (1893). 



Isolated as the Gingko is amidst all existing vegetable forms, traces 

 of its relationship with some of 'them are not entirely wanting ; such 

 traces are found in Cephalotaxus ; they are seen in the structure of 

 the fruit which closely resembles that of Gingko in the following 

 characteristics : 



The fruits of both genera are destitute of an aril, its place being 

 taken by the testa of the seed which becomes succulent. The seed 

 or nut which is enclosed in a hard ligneous shell, is covered with a 

 brown membrane the lower half of which is adherent to the 

 shell. There is also a well-marked pollen chamber in the nucellus of 

 the seed.f 



Five or six species of Cephalotaxus have been described, but they 

 are not differentiated by very definite characters. Their habitat is 

 confined within a somewhat limited area in eastern Asia including 

 Japan, a part of China and the eastern Himalayan zone where they 



* Kerner's "Natural History of Plants," Oliver's Translation, Vol. II. p. 572. 

 t Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXX. loc. cit. 



