(11) 



poison is in the outer fleshy layer. These two objections, however, 

 may easily he avoided. Since the Ginkgo has the male and female 

 flowers on different trees, the selection of male trees for planting 

 eliminates the fruit. Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, 

 it is practically impossible to distinguish between male and female 

 trees by habit or foliage. The appearance of the flowers or fruit 

 alone separates them. Though propagation by seed kept over 

 winter and planted in the spring is quite successful, the percentage 

 of male and female trees that will result cannot be foretold. 

 Grafting or budding of known male stock is the recognized method 

 of securing desirable material. 



This same fruit, however, contains a sweet kernel which in 

 China is roasted or eaten raw and highly esteemed as a dessert 

 nut, supposedly having digestive properties. It is sold in China as 

 pa kwo. In Washington, D. C, where many of these trees have 

 been planted, the Chinese laundry men gather the fallen fruit for 

 food. 



The soft, straight-grained, light-brownish wood with a silky 

 sheen is used for making" abacus beads, seals, and other small 

 fancy articles in China. In Japan it is extensively used for the 

 ground work of lacquer ware and in the manufacture of chess 

 boards and chess men. The Japanese use the leaves for fertilizer, 

 especially in rice fields under water. Moreover, they ascribe to 

 the leaves an insecticidal power and the leaf of the Ginkgo used as 

 a bookmark, it is claimed, keeps away insects that attack books. 

 Generally, however, the Ginkgo in the Orient has been associated 

 with sentimental tradition and consequently it is not much used 

 commercially. 



Botanically, the tree is unique among living plants,* for it bears 

 affinities with the conifers on the one side and with the ferns on 



* In all seedless plants, such as ferns, mosses, and algae, fertilization of an egg cell, 

 when it occurs, is usually accomplished by means of motile sperm cells. Moisture is 

 required at some point for these sperm cells to swim in by means of their moving hairs. 

 This is a very dominant feature in these lower and less highly organized plants. In 

 the seed plants, in general, however, the sperm cells are not motile but are produced in 

 pollen tubes that assist the mechanics of fertilization. That is the process in perhaps 

 ninety-nine per cent of the plants that ordinarily come to our attention. But there are 

 two kinds of trees out of all the one hundred and sixty thousand kinds of seed plants 

 known that show the primitive way of fertilization by motile sperm cells. One is the 

 Cycad group and the other is the Ginkgo. The singular occurrence of this mode of 

 fertilization in the Ginkgo is the most interesting feature of the tree to the botanist. The 

 details of it cannot be discussed here. 



