126 LINKS WITH THE PAST [cH. 



past. The recognition of this special feature afforded 

 a sound reason, especially when other peculiarities are 

 considered, for removing Ginkgo from the Conifers 

 and instituting a new class-name, Ginkgoales. 



Ginkgo is a generalised type, linked by different 

 characters both with living members of the two classes 

 of naked-seeded plants and with certain existing 

 Palaeozoic genera. It is a survivor of a race which 

 has narrowly escaped extinction ; the last of a long 

 line that has outlived its family and offers by its per- 

 sistence an impressive instance of the past in the 

 present. Though Mrs Bishop in her Untrodden 

 Patlis in Japan speaks of forests of IMaiden Hair 

 trees apparently in a wild state, it is generally 

 believed that they were cultivated specimens. 

 Mr Henry who has an exceptionally wide knowledge 

 of Cliinese vegetation tells us that 'all scientific 

 travellers in Japan and the leading Japanese botanists 

 and foresters deny its being indigenous in any part of 

 Japan ; and botanical collectors have not observed it 

 truly wild in China.' JNIoreover, Mr E. H. Wilson, 

 after traversing the whole of the district where 

 Ginkgo was supposed to occur in a wild state, says 

 that he found only cultivated trees. There is no reason 

 to doubt that China is the last stronghold of this 

 ancient type which in an earlier period of the earth's 

 history overspread the world. 



A brief summary of the past history of Ginkgo 



