1906-1907. J 495 



as it is the sole representative of a type of vegetation lono- since 

 extinct. Ginkgo is monotypic. The existing species is the sole 

 survivor of an unknown number of others widely dispersed 

 during geological' ages over what is now the temperate and 

 colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Fossil remains of 

 Ginkgo have been discovered in systems that were in course of 

 formation at a remote epoch of the earth's history, and which 

 conclusively show that the genus is of astonishing antiquity, and 

 that the first appearance of its ancestral form antedates that of 

 every other existing tree by aeons of time. The Ginkgo thus 

 presents tO' us at least one form of vegetation that flourished on 

 the earth when it was inhabited by unwieldy Icthyosauri, 

 gigantic Toads, and monster Dinotheria, ages before man 

 entered upon his inheritance. If the association of the Ginkgo 

 with the rem^ote past is of a kind to excite wonder, its recent 

 history is scarcely less a subject of surprise, for the origin of the 

 existing species is shrouded in mystery as obscure as that of its 

 remote ancestors. Its habitat is practically unknown. No' 

 naturalist can say that he has seen it in a wild state, and 

 hypothesis alon© suggests that it may possibly be found wild in 

 some unexplored district in Eastern Mongolia. For centuries it 

 has been preserved alive by the Chinese and Japanese, who, by 

 associating it with their religious worship and planting it near 

 their shrines and temples, have invested it with a kind of 

 sanctity that has contributed immensely to its preservation 

 among a dense population, with whom the struggle for existence 

 has long been of an acute kind, and whose sources of fuel and 

 timber have always been extremely restricted. Thus preserved, it 

 stands alone, a perfect stranger in the midst of recent vegetable 

 forms. The variations in ferns are numerous, taking the forms 

 of crests, tassels, plumose, congested, cruciate, toothed, and 

 finely divided, &c. Now, to explain and show these varieties, 

 let us commence with the Royal fern, or the flowering fern, also 

 known as the Osmunda regalis, which is, as Dr. Deakin well 

 remarks, the prince among the existing British race. It grows 

 naturally in wet, springy, or boggy places. 



