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- 

 scars 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, pi.; Bosemann, 68; Otis, 2; Schneider, f. 57, 64; Shirasawa, 

 265, pi. 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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