Abstract
II. GINKGO (Linnæus) THE perhaps better known name of this genus is Salisburia (Smith), but the Linnæan name, adapted from the Chinese, has unfortunately priority. The genus contains only one existing species, the gigantic Ginkgo biloba of Northern China and Japan. It is classified with the Taxeæ, is diœcious, and the flabelliform leaves are deciduous, leathery, very variably lobed, and of all sizes up to an extreme of five inches across. The fruit, about an inch in diameter, is drupaceous, on a slender footstalk, composed externally of a fleshy layer, and internally of a hard light-coloured shell, and is somewhat unsymmetrical, owing to the abortion of one of the seeds. The foliage is like that of the maidenhair fern, but the petiole is stout, often three inches long, and distinctly articulated at the base. An important characteristic in recognising the fossil leaf, besides the petiole, is that however irregularly they may be lobed, they are almost invariably primarily bilobed.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
GARDNER, J. A Chapter in the History of the Coniferæ . Nature 23, 251–252 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023251a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023251a0