CONIFERS GROWN IN SUBURBAN GARDENS. 161
here. When well grown it is a pyramidal tree, with a tall straight
trunk and many spreading branches bearing in summer long
and short shoots, and having leaves shaped like those of maiden-
hair fern. The male flowers are in loose catkins, bearing a num-
ber of stamens on short slender stalks; the female flowers, formed
on another tree, consist of a long peduncle bearing two ovules
at its summit, each surrounded by a collar-like base. When
ripe the fruit is like a big yellow cherry, having a fleshy outer
coat surrounding a woody shell enclosing the seed. A remark-
able archaic character retained by Ginkgo is that the ovules are
fertilized by active ciliated spermatozoids, as they are in Cycads
and ferns, and not by merely passive nuclei conveyed by the
pollen tube, as in conifers and flowering plants. Remains of
fossil plants closely allied to Ginkgo have been found in Britain
and in many parts of the world, but at the present time this
"living fossil," as Darwin called it, is "reported to be wild some-
times in China," but otherwise is known only in gardens". The
male plant only has been introduced into England.1 A well-
shaped tree, about forty feet high, said to be the finest in the
neighbourhood of London, is to be seen in a garden, formerly
belonging to the Mackenzie family, in George Lane, Woodford.
It bears abundant stamen-flowers in early summer. (Plate X.)
The true conifers form by far the largest class of living Gymno-
sperms. They abound in many parts of the world, especially
in temperate, subtropical and mountain regions, where they
often form dense forests.
As their name implies, their flowers are usually arranged
in cones, which are either male or female. They are never borne
at the apex of the stem, as in the Cycads. The male flowers
consist of a number of stamens, each with two or more pollen-
sacs and arranged on a common stalk to form a cone or catkin.
The female flowers usually form cones, but there are many excep-
tions, as in the large group to which the yew belongs.
The true meaning or morphology of the different parts of the
flowers is still a matter on which no final decision has been
reached by botanists. For our present purpose we may take
1—Since writing the above, my attention has been drawn to the fact that nine years ago, in
1911, a shoot from a female Ginkgo, growing in the botanic gardens of Montpellier, in the south
of France, was grafted on to the fine old male Ginkgo, in Kew Gardens. Last autumn, when the
leaves were shed, it was seen that several fruits had been borne on the graft. After this success-
ful experiment it may be hoped that ere many years have passed Ginkgo fruits will be met with
in many other British gardens.
M