THE MAIDEN HAIR TREE
'...the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self.'
Keats.
The Maiden Hair tree of China and Japan, which was introduced into
Europe early in the eighteenth century, has now become fairly well
known. Though hardy in England, it requires warmer summers for full
development and regular flowering. To botanists this Eastern tree is of
peculiar interest, partly because of the isolated position it occupies
in the plant-kingdom and partly by reason of its great antiquity. There
is probably no other existing tree which has so strong a claim to be
styled a 'living fossil,' to use a term applied by Darwin to survivals
from the past. In 1712 the traveller Kaempfer proposed for this plant
the generic name Ginkgo, and Linnaeus adopted this designation, adding
the specific name _biloba_ to denote the bisection of the wedge-shaped
lamina of the leaf into two divergent segments. In 1777 the English
botanist Sir J. E. Smith expressed his disapproval of what he called
the uncouth name Ginkgo by substituting for _Ginkgo biloba_ the title
Salisburia adiantifolia, but as it is customary to retain names adopted
or proposed by Linnaeus, the founder of the binominal system of
nomenclature, the correct botanical designation of the maiden hair tree
is _Ginkgo biloba_. Mere personal preference such as that of Sir J. E.
Smith for Salisburia is not an adequate reason for rejecting an older
name.
[Illustration: Fig. 19. _Ginkgo biloba_ Linn. (Slightly reduced.)]
In its pyramidal habit Ginkgo agrees generally with the larch and other
Conifers. Like the larch and cedar it possesses two kinds of foliage
shoots, the more rapidly growing long shoots with scattered leaves
and the much shorter dwarf-shoots which elongate slightly each year
and bear several leaves crowded round their apex. The leaves (Fig.
19), which are shed each year, are similar in the cuneate form of the
lamina and in the fan-like distribution of the forked veins, to the
large leaflets of some species of maiden hair ferns: the thin lamina
carried by a slender leaf-stalk is usually about 3 inches across,
though in exceptional cases it may reach a breadth of 8 inches. The
lamina is usually divided by a deep =V=-shaped sinus into two equal
halves; it may be entire with an irregularly crenulate margin, or, on
seedlings and vigorous long shoots, the lamina may be cut into several
wedge-shaped segments.
The male and female flowers are borne on separate trees; the male
consists of a central axis giving off slender branches, each of which
ends in a small terminal knot and two elliptical capsules in which
the pollen is produced. The female flowers have a stouter axis which
normally produces two seeds at the apex. The seed is encased in a
green fleshy substance and, as in the fruit of a cherry or plum, the
kernel is protected by a hard woody shell. In the form of the leaves
and in the structure of the flowers Ginkgo presents features which
clearly distinguish it from the Conifers, the class in which, until
recently, it was included. In 1896 the Japanese botanist Hirase made
the important discovery that the male reproductive cells of Ginkgo are
large motile bodies provided with a spirally coiled band of minute
cilia--delicate hairs which by their rapid lashing-movement propel the
cell through water. In all Flowering Plants and in Conifers the male
reproductive cells have no independent means of locomotion; they are
carried to the female cell by the formation of a slender tube--the
pollen-tube--produced by the pollen-grain. In the Ferns, Lycopods and
Horsetails--in fact in all members of the Pteridophyta--as also in the
Mosses and Liverworts as well as in many of the still lower plants,
the male cells swim to the egg by the lashing of cilia like those on
the male cells of Ginkgo. This difference in regard to the nature of
the male cells was considered to be a fundamental distinction between
the higher seed-bearing plants and all other groups of the vegetable
kingdom. It was, therefore, with no ordinary interest that Hirase's
discovery was received, as it broke down a distinction between the two
great divisions of the plant-world which had been generally accepted
as fundamental; though it is only fair to say that the German botanist
Hofmeister, a man of exceptional originality and power of grasping the
essential, foresaw the possibility that this arbitrary barrier would
eventually be removed. The Ferns and other plants in which the male
cells are motile, represent earlier stages in the progress of plant
development, when the presence of water was essential for the act
of fertilisation, a relic of earlier days when the whole plant-body
was fitted for a life in water. As higher types were produced, the
plant-machinery became less dependent on an aqueous habitat, and the
loss of organs of locomotion in the male cells is an instance of the
kind of change accompanying the gradual adaptation to life on land. The
idea of the gradual emancipation of plants from a watery environment is
expressed in a somewhat extreme form by the author of a book entitled
_The Lessons of Evolution_(52), who states that the ocean is the mother
of plant-life and that plants formed the army which conquered the land.
In Ginkgo we have a type which, though similar in most respects to
the Conifers, possesses in its motile reproductive cells a persistent
inheritance from the past. The recognition of this special feature
afforded a sound reason, especially when other peculiarities are
considered, for removing Ginkgo from the Conifers and instituting a new
class-name, Ginkgoales.
Ginkgo is a generalised type, linked by different characters both
with living members of the two classes of naked-seeded plants and
with certain existing Palaeozoic genera. It is a survivor of a race
which has narrowly escaped extinction; the last of a long line that
has outlived its family and offers by its persistence an impressive
instance of the past in the present. Though Mrs Bishop in her
_Untrodden Paths in Japan_ speaks of forests of Maiden Hair trees
apparently in a wild state, it is generally believed that they were
cultivated specimens. Mr Henry who has an exceptionally wide knowledge
of Chinese vegetation tells us that 'all scientific travellers in
Japan and the leading Japanese botanists and foresters deny its being
indigenous in any part of Japan; and botanical collectors have not
observed it truly wild in China.' Moreover, Mr E. H. Wilson, after
traversing the whole of the district where Ginkgo was supposed to occur
in a wild state, says that he found only cultivated trees. There is no
reason to doubt that China is the last stronghold of this ancient type
which in an earlier period of the earth's history overspread the world.
A brief summary of the past history of Ginkgo and of the Ginkgoales
supplies overwhelming testimony to the tenacity of life with which the
Maiden Hair tree has persisted through the ages.
It was pointed out in the account of the past history of Araucaria that
the records obtained from Palaeozoic rocks, while affording evidence of
the existence of Carboniferous and Permian genera undoubtedly allied
to the living species, do not enable us to speak with certainty as to
the precise degree of affinity. Similarly, Palaeozoic leaves have been
described as representatives of the class of which Ginkgo is the sole
survivor, but the evidence on which this relationship is assumed is by
no means conclusive.
The generic name Psygmophyllum has been applied to some impressions
of Ginkgo-like leaves discovered in the Upper Devonian rocks of
Bear Island, a small remnant of land in the Arctic circle, which
has furnished valuable information as to the composition of one of
the oldest floras of which satisfactory remains have been found.
Other examples of these lobed, wedge-shaped leaves are recorded from
Carboniferous rocks in Germany, France, and elsewhere; from Permian
strata in the east of Russia and from Palaeozoic beds in Cape Colony
and Kashmir. A relationship between Psygmophyllum and Ginkgo is,
however, by no means established and rests solely on a resemblance in
the form of the leaves. The close correspondence in form and venation
between some leaves from Permian rocks in the Ural mountains and
from Lower Permian beds in France, and those of the recent species,
is considered by some authors sufficiently striking to justify the
reference of these fossils to the genus Ginkgo. Similar leaves of
Permian age, which may also be related to the existing species, have
been described under the name Ginkgophyllum. Other specimens of
Palaeozoic age from North America and elsewhere have been assigned to
the Ginkgoales; but in none of these cases, despite the resemblance
in leaf-form, is there sufficiently convincing evidence of close
relationship to warrant a definite assertion that the plants in
question were members of the group of which Ginkgo alone remains.
It is, however, an undoubted fact that the Maiden Hair tree is
connected by a long line of ancestors with the earliest phase of the
Mesozoic era. From many parts of the world large collections of fossil
plants have been obtained from strata referred to the Rhaetic period,
or to the upper division of the Triassic system. A comparison of floras
from these geological horizons in different parts of the world points
to a vegetation extending from Australia, Cape Colony, and South
America, to Tonkin, the south of Sweden and North America, which was
characterised by a greater uniformity than is shown by widely separated
floras at the present day. One of the commonest genera in Rhaetic
floras is that known as Baiera; this name is applied to wedge-shaped
leaves with a slender stalk similar in shape and venation to those of
Ginkgo, but differing in the greater number and smaller breadth of
the segments. Between the deeply dissected leaf of a typical Baiera
with its narrow linear lobes and the entire or broadly lobed leaf of a
Ginkgo there are many connecting links, and to some specimens either
name might be applied with equal fitness. Examples of Baiera leaves,
in some cases associated with fragments of reproductive organs, are
recorded from Rhaetic rocks of France, the south of Sweden, Tonkin,
Chili, the Argentine, North America, South Africa, and from other
regions. There is abundant evidence pointing to the almost world-wide
distribution of the Ginkgoales, as represented more especially by
Baiera, in the older Mesozoic floras. In the later Jurassic rocks of
Yorkshire true Ginkgo leaves as well as those of the Baiera type are
fairly common; with the leaves have been found pieces of male and
female flowers. Ginkgo and Baiera have been described from Jurassic
rocks of Germany, France, Russia, Bornholm, and elsewhere in Europe;
they occur abundantly in Middle Jurassic rocks in northern Siberia, and
are represented in the Jurassic floras of Franz Josef Land, the East
Coast of Greenland, and Spitzbergen (Fig. 20). The abundance of Ginkgo
and Baiera leaves associated with male flowers and seeds discovered in
Jurassic rocks, approximately of the same geological age as those on
the Yorkshire coast, in East Siberia and in the Amur district, has led
to the suggestion that this region may have been a centre where the
Ginkgoales reached their maximum development in the Mesozoic period.
[Illustration: Fig. 20. Fossil Ginkgo leaves. (1/2 nat. size.)
A. Tertiary, Island of Mull.
B. Wealden, North Germany (after Schenk).
C. Jurassic, Japan (after Yokoyama).
D. Jurassic, Australia (after Stirling).
E. Jurassic, Siberia (after Heer).
F. Jurassic, Turkestan.
G. Lower Cretaceous, Greenland (after Heer).
H. Jurassic, California (after Fontaine).
I. Jurassic, Yorkshire.
J. Jurassic, N.E. Scotland (after Stopes).
K. Wealden, Franz Josef Land (after Nathorst).
L. Rhaetic, South Africa.
M. Jurassic, Spitzbergen (after Heer).
]
It should be added that other genera of Jurassic and Rhaetic fossils
in addition to Ginkgo and Baiera have been referred to the Ginkgoales,
though evidence of such affinity is not convincing. There is, however,
good reason to believe that this widespread group was represented by
several genera in the older Mesozoic floras.
The occurrence of the Ginkgoales in Jurassic rocks in King Charles
Land and in the New Siberian Islands (lat. 78° and 75° N.), in Central
China, Japan, Turkestan, California, Oregon, South Africa, Australia,
and Graham's Land demonstrates the cosmopolitan nature of the group.
During the later part of the Jurassic period and in the Wealden floras
both Baiera and Ginkgo were abundant; leaves are recorded from Jurassic
strata in the north-east of Scotland, from Lower Cretaceous or Wealden
rocks in North Germany, Portugal, Vancouver Island, Wyoming, and
Greenland.
During the Tertiary period, or probably in the earlier days of
that era. Ginkgo flourished in North America, in Alaska and in the
Mackenzie River district, Greenland, Saghalien Island, and in several
European regions. In Chapter III reference was made to the volcanic
activity which characterised the north-west European area in the
early Tertiary period and resulted in the formation of the thick
sheets of basalt on the north-east coast of Ireland and in the Inner
Hebrides. There were occasional pauses in the volcanic activity,
during which vegetation established itself on the weathered surface
of the lava, and left traces of its existence in the leaves and twigs
preserved in the sedimentary material enclosed between successive
lava-floras. At Ardtun Head in the Isle of Mull beautifully preserved
leaves of Ginkgo, 2-4 inches in breadth, with the median sinus and
the venation characteristic of the leaves of the existing plant,
have been discovered in a bed of clay which marks the site of a
lake in a depression on the lava-plateau. The resemblance of these
Tertiary leaves from Mull to those of the surviving Maiden Hair tree
is so close as to suggest specific identity. Mr Starkie Gardner and
Baron Ettingshausen have described some seeds from the London clay
(Lower Tertiary) in the Isle of Sheppey as those of Ginkgo, but this
identification rests on data too insufficient to be accepted without
hesitation.
The recent cultivation of _Ginkgo biloba_ in Britain may therefore
be spoken of as the re-introduction of a plant which in the earlier
part or in the middle of the Tertiary period flourished in the west of
Scotland, and was abundant in England in the earlier Jurassic period.
It is impossible to say with any confidence where the Ginkgoales first
made their appearance, whether in the far north or in the south, nor
are we able to explain the gradual decline of so venerable and vigorous
a race.
As we search among the fragmentary herbaria scattered through the
sedimentary rocks in that comparatively small portion of the earth's
crust which is accessible to investigation, we discover evidence of a
shifting of the balance of power among different classes of plants in
the course of our survey of successive floras. Plants now insignificant
and few in number are found to be descendants of a long line of
ancestors stretching back to a remote antiquity when they formed the
dominant class. Others which flourished in a former period no longer
survive, either themselves or in direct descendants. 'The extinction of
species has been involved in the most gratuitous mystery.' We can only
speculate vaguely as to the cause of success or failure. Certain types
were better armed for the struggle for life, and produced descendants
able to hold their own and to perpetuate the race through the ages in
an unbroken line. Others had a shorter life and fell out of the ranks
of the advancing and ever changing army. To quote Darwin's words:'We
need not marvel at extinction; if we must marvel, let it be at our
own presumption in imagining for a moment that we understand the many
complex contingencies on which the existence of each species depends.'
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INDEX
_Aachenosaurus multidens_, 68
_Agathis australis_, 107
_A. Moorei_, 108
_A. robusta_, 108, 109
Amber, 65, 66
Amethyst Mountain, 59, 60, 104
Amundsen, E., 62
_Anacharis alsinastrum_, 20
Angiosperms, history of, 16, 53, 69, 70
Annual rings, 5-9
Antarctic fossil plants, 70, 117
_Araucaria Bidwillii_, 115
_A. brasiliana_, 109
_A. Cookii_, 111, 118
_A. excelsa_, 110, 111, 114, 115, 118
_A. imbricata_, 109, 111, 113, 118
Araucarieae, 106-120
Araucarioxylon, 112
_Araucarites Oldhami_, 113
_A. sphaerocarpus_, 116
Arbutus Unedo, 31-33, 36
Archaean rocks, 43
Arctic plants, 22, 23, 30, 69, 127
Arctic-Alpine plants, 22, 23
Arizona, fossil forests of, 59
Artocarpus, 28, 29
Baiera, 129, 131
Banks, Sir Joseph, 110
Barry, forest beds at, 13
Bennett, A., 21
_Bidens tripartita_, 46, 47
Bishop, Mrs, 126
Bommer, C, 73, 82, 89
Bovey Tracey, fossil plants from, 101-103
Bower, Prof., 73
Bracken Fern, 75, 77, 83, 87
Brandon, flint-knappers of, 3
Brigg, dug-out boat from, 10, 11
British flora, 19-38
_Caltha palustris_, 47
Campbell, Prof. D. H., 79
Candolle, A. P. de, 7, 33
Canton, W., 34
Carboniferous plants, 66-68, 72-75, 127
Carruthers, Dr W., 115
Cedars, 27
Cheddar Pink, 24
_Cinnamomum prototypum_, 65, 66
Climate, fossil plants and, 68, 69
Coal age, plants of the, 19, 66, 67
Connemara, 30, 31
Cook, Capt., 111
Coral polyps compared with plants, 8
Cordaites, 112
Cornwall, Pyrenean Heaths in, 31
Cretaceous plants, 16, 17, 53, 82, 117
Cromer Forest bed, 48
_Cryptomeria japonica_, 111
Cycads, 11, 72-74
_Daboecia polifolia_, 30
Dacrydium, 85
Dakota group, flora of, 17
_Dammara alba_, 107
Darwin, C, 16, 24, 25, 33, 39, 40, 61, 133
Devonshire, Pyrenean Heaths in, 31
_Dianthus caesius_, 24
Dipteris, 77, 92-94
_D. conjugata_, 92, 93
_D. Horsfieldii_, 86, 93
Disco Island, Fossil plants from, 28, 69, 82, 103
Discontinuous distribution, 26
Dispersal of plants, rate of, 25, 26
Distribution of plants, 15-38
Drift-wood, 61-63
_Dryas octopetala_, 22
Dufferin, Lord, 61
_Elodea canadensis_, 20, 21
Engler, Prof., 23
_Erica ciliaris_, 31
_E. Mackaii_, 31
_E. mediterranea_, 30, 31
_E. vagans_, 31
_Eriocaulon septangulare_, 35-38
Ettingshausen, Baron, 105, 132
Ferns, 71-94
Flowering plants, see Angiosperms
Forbes, E., 31-34, 37
Fossil plants, as thermometers, 68;
preservation of, 56-70
Gardner, J. S., 132
Geographical distribution of plants, 15-38
Geological evolution of Britain, 29
Geological record, 39-55
Geological table, 42, 43
Geological time, 2, 3, 49
_Ginkgo biloba_, 113, 120-133
Ginkgoales, 18, 120-133
Ginkgophyllum, 128
Glacial period, effect on vegetation of, 29-32, 45, 47
_Gladiolus illyricus_, 31
Gleichenia, 81-83
Graham's Land, 70, 117
Gunn, Dr Marcus, 117
Gwynne-Vaughan, Prof., 80
Gymnosperms, 17, 18
_Habenaria intacta_, 37
Halifax, plants from canal near, 21
Heer, O.,33, 82, 101
Henry, A., 126
Hirase, Prof., 124, 125
Hofmeister, W. F. B., 125
Hollick, A., 119
Holmes, T. Rice, 2
Hooker, Sir J. D., 4, 15, 16, 22, 23, 27, 40
Hose, C, 87
Huxley, T. H., 11, 52
Ireland, Mediterranean plants in, 30-38
Jeffrey, Prof. E. C, 114, 119
Jet, 114
Juan Fernandez, 84
Jurassic flora, 53, 54, 70, 117
Jussieu, A. de, 109
Kaempfer, E., 121
Kauri Pine, 107
Kidston, Dr E., 74, 80
Knaresborough, petrifying spring at, 64
Krakatau, new flora of, 33, 31
Laccopteris, 90, 91
Lang, Dr A. , 27
Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray, 49
Lhwyd, E., 57
Linnaeus, C, 121, 123
Liriodendron, 28, 29
Liverworts, antiquity of, 79
London Pride, 31
Longevity of trees, 1-10
_Luzula racemosa_, 23
_L. spicata_, 23, 24
MacDougal, Prof., 62
Maiden Hair Tree, 120-133
Mammoth trees of California, 95-105
Man, first appearance of, 49
Marchantia, 79
Market Harborough, Elodea discovered near, 20
Marshall, E. S., 38
Matonia, 77, 86-94
_M. pectinata_, 86-88, 92, 93
_M. sarmentosa_, 87
Matonidium, 89
Mediterranean plants in Ireland, 30-38
Miller, Hugh, 59, 115, 117
Milligan, Dr, 2
Moss, Dr C. E., 23
Mull, Fossil plants in Isle of, 132
_Naias graminea_, 21
Nathorst, A. G., 64, 103, 117
Native plants, 20
New forest, 31
_Nipa fruticans_, 50-52
Nipadites, 50, 52
Norfolk Island Pine, see _Araucaria excelsa_
Oaks, longevity of, 4
Oliver, Prof. F. W., 74
_Osmunda regalis_, 76-79, 83
_Osmundites Dunlopi_, 80
Palaeozoic plants, 55, 66-68, 71, 127, 128
Peat, trees in, 12, 13
Permian floras, 55
Petrifaction, 64-67
_Picea excelsa_, 46, 48
Pines, Tertiary, 65, 66
_Pinus sylvestris_, 11-13, 47
Pipewort, 36-38
Pliny's Natural History, 4
Podocarpus, 109
_Potamogeton pennsylvanicus_, 21
Praeger, E. L., 32, 36, 37
Pre-Glacial plants, 22, 45-48
_Primula elatior_, 24
Protodammara, 119
Psygmophyllum, 127
_Pteridium aquilinum_, 75, 77, 83, 87
Pteridophyta, 18, 124
Pteridosperms, 74, 75
Pyrenean plants in Ireland, 31-38
Ray, John, 56
Reddish Canal, plants from the, 21
Redwoods of California, 95-105
Reid, Clement, 13, 22, 45, 102
Reid, Mrs, 22, 102
Rhaetic plants, 54, 94
Riccia, 79
Ridley, H. N., 25
Royal Fern, 76-79, 83
_Rubus chamaemorus_, 22
St Dabeoc's Heath, 30, 32, 37
_Salisburia adiantifolia_, 122
Saporta, the Marquis of, 70
_Saxifraga oppositifolia_, 22
_S. umbrosa_, 31
Scandinavian plants in Britain, 21-23, 30
Scots Pine, see _Pinus sylvestris_
Scott, Dr D. H., 74
Sequoia, 5, 95-105
_Sequoia Couttsiae_, 101
_S. gigantea_, 5, 95, 96, 98-104
_S. magnifica_, 104
_S. novae zeelandicae_, 105
_S. sempervirens_, 45, 96, 98, 104
Sheppey, fossil plants from, 50, 132
_Shorea leprosula_, 25
_Silene acaulis_, 22
_Sisyrinchium angustifolium_, 38
_S. californicum_, 38
Smith, G., 75
Smith, Sir J. E., 122, 123
Smith, W., 41
Sollas, Prof., 58
_Spiranthes romanzoffiana_, 38
_Stellaria holostea_, 46, 47
Steno, 57
Strahan, A., 13
Strawberry tree, 31, 32
Tansley, A. G., 12, 13, 87
_Taxodium distichum_, 103
Tertiary plants, 31-33, 37, 49, 50, 103
_Theobroma cacao_, 7
_Thyrsopteris elegans_, 84
_Todea barbara_, 11, 78
_T. radicans_, 78
_Trapa natans_, 47, 48
Triassic period, 54, 55
Tulip tree, 28
Walchia, 113
Wallace, Dr A. R., 85
Wealden flora, 17, 53
Weismann, A., 3
Wexford, American plant from, 38
Williamson, Prof. W. C, 72
Wilson, E. H., 120
Winchester Cathedral, wood from foundations of, 10
Woodward, Dr J., 57
Woodworthia, 114
Yellowstone Park, fossil trees in the, 59-61, 104
Zeiller, R., 113
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Transcriber Note
Illustrations were repositioned to avoid splitting paragraphs. The
errata note was applied to the text.