SPERMATOPHYTES 
207 
(5) GlNKGOALES 
General character. Ginkgo biloba, the maidenhair tree, is the only 
living representative of a gymnosperm line that reaches back to the 
paleozoic Cordaitales, and was most extensively displayed during the 
Mesozoic. Its extensive cultivation by the Chinese and the Japanese, 
especially in temple grounds, first brought it into notice, and for a long 
time it was supposed that it did not exist in the wild state. In recent 
years, however, it has been found growing wild in the mountains of 
western China. 
PKJ. 465. The leaf of Ginkgg. 
Sporophyte. Ginkgo is a tree with the general habit of a conifer, 
and therefore very unlike a cycad. As in both Cordaitales and Conif- 
erales, it develops two kinds of branches : long shoots bearing scattered 
foliage leaves, and dwarf shoots bearing a few crowded leaves. 
Vascular anatomy. The anatomy of the stem closely resembles 
that of the Coniferales, with its thick cylinder of secondary wood and 
its relatively small pith, the latter character contrasting with the large 
pith of Cordaitales. All traces of mesarch bundles have disappeared 
from the stem, and also from the leaves, but they occur in the cotyle- 
dons. It is evident that in vascular anatomy Ginkgo has departed 
farther from the ferns than have the Cordaitales or the cycad line. 
