14 



Historical account: — Van Tieghem considers the female flower as 

 a real single flower representing a carpellary leaf which is the first 

 leaf of an undeveloped axillary bud; and the so-caliecl flower-stalk as 

 the leaf-stalk ending with two ovules, each of which corresponds to a 

 half of the lamina of the carpellary leaf. 



But there are often found flowers with more than two ovules, of 

 which he remarks that though the leaves of Ginkgo are usually 2-lobed, 

 3 — 6-lobed ones are occasionally met with, and carpels with so many 

 ovules may naturally occur. (1) 



Strasburger denies this view, and considers the female flower as 

 a 2-flowered inflorescence, the ovule as the terminal formation of the 

 secondary axillary shoot of the axis of inflorescence, where the subtend- 

 ing bract is abortive, and the cup-shaped basal swelling as either an 

 arillus or a kind of pseudo-arillus formed by the swelling of the axis 

 around the ovule/ 2J And he remarks, on comparing Coniferm with 

 Cycadacew, that in the former ovules are born on the " Achsenorgan," 

 while in the latter on the " Blattorgan." (3) 



According to Eichler's latest view on the morphology in question 

 the female flower is a real single flower, but the flower-stalk is a, small 

 shoot, and the cup-shaped swelling at the base of the ovule is the 

 rudimentary carpel. (4) 



Solms-Laubach also denies Van Tieghem s view, and describes the 

 the female flower as a female flowering shoot/ 5J Sachs/ 6 ' Gosbel/ 73 and 

 also most other eminent authors regard it as a shoot; but it is not by 

 every author that the question whether the female flower is to be 

 regarded as an inflorescence or as a single flower is discussed. 



Sachs states : li The single flower [of Ginkgo'] consists of a stalk- 

 like elongated axis which bears immediately beneath its apex two or 

 more rarely three lateral ovules. Neither in this genus nor in Taxus 

 are there any foliar structures close to the ovules, which either from 



t^Strasburger, Die Coniferen u.d. Gnetaceeii, p. 16 (1872). 

 (2- His later view — Die Angiospermen u.d. Gymnospermen, p. 73-76. (1879). 

 ( 3 )Die Angiospermen u.d. Gymnospermen, p. .134. 



( 4l Eagler u. Plantl, Pnanzenfamilien, Embrgopliyta Siphouogama, p. 109 (1889). 

 ( 5 'Fossil Botany (English translation), p. 61 (1891). 



(OText Book of Botany, Second Edition (English translation), p. 516 (1882). 

 (7. Outlines of Classification and Special Morphology of Plants (English edition), p. 326 

 (1887). 



