THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



explain its disappearance from much of the Northern 

 Hemisphere it does not account for its absence in a 

 wild state in the Orient, where fossil evidence proves 

 its presence in epochs coeval with those in America 

 and Europe. Having successfully withstood varying 

 conditions throughout an inconceivable period of 

 time, as proved by the geological record, it seems 

 passing strange that it should so comparatively 

 recently have disappeared. What caused its disap- 

 pearance we shall never know, but the same has hap- 

 pened to billions upon billions of organic forms since 

 first progressive organic development began. More 

 marvellous is the fact that this extraordinary type of 

 vegetation should have persisted through the aeons 

 to the present. 



The earliest known mention of the Ginkgo in books 

 is in a Chinese work on agriculture which dates from 

 the 8th century of our era. At the beginning of 

 iooo a.d. the fruit was taken as tribute by the newly 

 established Sung Dynasty being known as "Ya- 

 chio-tzu," which signifies "Silver-apricot," from its 

 resemblance to the kernel of an apricot. In the great 

 Chinese Herbal, issued in 1578, the author calls 

 it the "Ya-chio-tzu," which means "the tree with 

 leaves like a duck's foot" and is quite descriptive. 

 These old names may be in use in parts of China to- 

 day, but I never heard them used; the names in 

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