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 



I sessile, round-ovoid or hemispher 



\\ ' W ^"^Vv ica1 ' witn aDout 3 exposed scales 



v\ V \ V* I usually developing into blunt 



Vi \\ XNuill spurs. Leaf-scars alternate, crowd 



\ ' \ xy\ ed on the s P urs Dut separated else 



u Jw^ [\ J X where, crescent-shaped or trans 

 ft / 7 V \~/ / versely elliptical, low, moderately 

 Ky// (tr~fl small: bundle-traces 2: stipule- 



IffJ \\^S>f'\ scars lacking. (Salisburia.) 



m \ Ks " J 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 fern worts and mossworts. 



Winter-character references: Blakeslee & Jarvis, 333, 

 382, pi. j 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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