On the Ribbing of the Seeds of Ginkgo, 
BY 
Miss M. F. A. AFFOURTIT 
AND 
Miss H. C. C. LA RIVlFRE. 
With a Figure in the Text. 
OME months ago we received a number of seeds of Ginkgo biloba , 
O gathered from a tree growing in a garden at Slikkerveer, in the 
neighbourhood of Rotterdam. 
When the thick, fleshy portion of the seeds had been removed, they 
showed their stony coats; it was remarkable that these were then of very 
different shapes, even more different than there was reason to anticipate 
from what is mentioned in the literature. Generally, the seeds seem to be 
considered as two-sided, but it appears that already A. Braun ( 1 ) noticed 
a difference in the shape of the stones ; as he says (p. 738) : ‘ Bei Ginkgo sind 
die Samen normal zweikantig, zuweilen sehr regelmassig dreikantig.’ 
E. Strasburger states ( 2 , p. 15) : ‘ Das Endocarp erscheint, entsprechend 
der Gestalt des inneren Raumes, scharf zweikantig, seltener dreikantig.’ 
In G. de Saporta and A. F. Marion we found ( 3 , p. 139): ‘Sous 
un mesotesta charnu, elle renferme un endotesta osseux en forme de coque 
bi- ou tricarenee.’ They also give drawings of a two- and of a three¬ 
angled seed (Fig. 6 9, E, F). 
A. W. Eichler ( 4 , p. 109) speaks only of a two-angled form of the stony 
coat, and figures it (Fig. 68, e,f). 
In the more recent literature the three-angled forms are referred to, as 
for instance in the following publications: A. C. Seward and J. Gowan 
( 5 , p. 124), Carothers (6, p. 136), and A. Sprecher ( 7 , p. 132). The latter 
gives also a drawing (Fig. 124) of a three-sided seed, and writes: c La 
plupart des noyaux sclereux ont deux cot6s, mais on en trouve assez 
frequemment qui en ont trois.’ 
The relatively large number of seeds we had at our disposal 
(viz. 117), all derived from a single tree, did not however show such regular 
forms as might be supposed from the published descriptions, so that 
we thought them worth placing on record. For not only did they show 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXIX. No. CXVI. October, 1915.] 
