NOTES ON GINKGO BILOBA: 
WALTER W. TUPPER 
(WITH PLATE XX) 
Among the gymnosperms, one of the groups most interesting 
from a morphological standpoint is the Ginkgoales, the only living 
representative of which is Ginkgo biloba, or maidenhair tree of 
China and Japan. This group is of special importance and value 
to the morphologist because of the close resemblance which its 
reproductive characters bear to those of the Archigymnospermae, 
and the many ways in which its vegetative anatomy resembles 
that of the lower conifers. Thus, the modern Ginkgo biloba forms 
the connecting link between the lower conifers and the Archi- 
gymnospermae. The presence of well-marked annual rings, and 
of opposite pits with bars of Sanio on the tracheids, and the absence 
of either terminal or diffuse xylem parenchyma in the branch of 
Ginkgo are some of its characters which show its close relationship 
with the pinelike or lower conifers. 
During this last year, the writer has made some studies of the 
wood and short shoots of Ginkgo. Perhaps the most striking 
characteristic of the anatomy of the wood is the presence and 
distribution of crystal cells and wood parenchyma. SEWARD and 
Gowan’ say that in a fairly old root the medullary rays contain 
a few crystal sacs, and that the wood parenchyma also includes 
some crystal-containing cells. Nowhere in their paper do they 
refer to the peculiar arrangement of the xylem parenchyma, nor 
is it shown by any of their plates. In another part of this same 
paper they describe the occurrence of swollen parenchymatous 
cells, full of crystals, in the secondary bast, cortex, pith, and medul- 
lary ray tissues. Nothing peculiar, however, is noted regarding 
«Contributions from the Phanerogamic Laboratories of Harvard University, 
no. 34. 
2 Sewarp, A. C., and Gowan, Miss J., The maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba L.). 
Annals of Botany 14:135. 1900. 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 51] (374 
