314 A MANUAL OF THE CONIFERS. 



remarkable and distinct deciduous trees that adorns the gardens and 

 parks of Great Britain. Its light and airy aspect, its peculiar foliage, 

 and the imposing dimensions it attains render it also one of the 

 most picturesque of trees. The following is Loudon's excellent 

 description with one or two necessary corrections : — 



" In England, where it is in a favourable soil and situation, it 

 rises with a straight erect trunk, regularly but not formally fur- 

 nished with branches, at first inclined upwards, but as they become 

 older taking a more horizontal direction, so as to form a regular 

 conical and somewhat spiry topped head. The leaves resemble in 

 form those of the Maiden-Hair Fern; they are of the same colour 

 and texture on both sides, and in their smoothness and, parallel 

 lines are like those of a monocotyledonous plant. They are some- 

 what triangular or fan-shaped, disposed alternately, wedge-shaped at 

 the base, with stalks as long as the disc; abrupt at the upper 

 extremity, those on the barren branches cloven or notched there in 

 a manner peculiar to this tree and some species of Ferns ; but on 

 the fertile branches the notch is absent and the outer edge merely 

 crenulate ; they are of a fine yellowish-green with numerous parallel 

 ribs. The pollen-bearing catkins are sessile, about 1J inch long, 

 and of a yellowish colour; the ovule-bearing catkins are produced 

 in pairs on long foot-stalks, and are enclosed in a sort of cup 

 produced by a dilatation of the summit of the peduncle. The fruit 

 consists of globular or ovate drupes about the size of a walnut, of 

 a yellowish-green when ripe, and enclosing a kernel about the size 

 of a hazel nut, which has a flavour something like that of an 

 almond." 



Habitat. — Northern China. It is frequently met with in Japan, 

 where it is most probably an introduced plant. 



Introduced into England about 1754. It has been made known 

 to Europeans sixty years previous by Ksempfer. 



Ginkgo biloba macrophylla has much larger leaves than the 

 species; they are nearly semicircular, and often measure from 5 to 

 6 inches across ; they are divided into two lobes by a cleft opposite 

 the foot-stalks two-thirds the width of the leaf. The edges of the 

 nerves are more jagged and the nerves radiating from the petiole 

 more prominent than in the species. 



