Ginkgo lii"lolm, the single living type of the Salisburias, stands, as we know, a.lone, a perfect stranger, in the midst of recent vegetable forms."* It is a d~cidnous tree, one of the exceptional CHses among conifers, * Solms-Laubach, Fossil Botany. ** Sohns-Laubach states in his Fossil Butany "The tree, unknown in the wild state and µreserved only in t.he groves of Chinese temples, seems to have been kept from extinction by the care of priests." But what caused the extinction of the wild plants of this species, which now flourishes in tolerably wide ranges of climate is a matter of qnestion. The two thoughts can Le snggested here in this respect. First, tlie important parts (endosperm and embryo) of the seeds are eaten by man in large q11antit1es; secon(l, there may have been tl,e extinction of animals that largely feed on the pulpy portions of the seeds and are the chief agencie~ for the clistribntion of the seeds. I have offen seen crows hold Ginkgo seeds between theil' beaks, bnt whether they actually feed on the' pulpy portions of the seed s very doubtful. At any rate, it is certain that crows have contributed very little to the distribution of the seeds of Ginkgo.

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Aims: The association between serum uric acid (UA) levels and cognitive function is controversial since UA can be a risk factor for cerebral ischemia as well as acting as a neuroprotective antioxidant. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 228 elderly participants and examined neuropsychological test results, clinical data as well as brain magnetic resonance imaging data. Patients: Overall, 64 participants were diagnosed with cognitive deterioration. To control for the effect of sex differences, 2 independent sets of single-variable and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed with quartiles divided into non-sex-specific and sex-specific cutoff values for UA. Results: In non-sex-specific quartiles, the participants in the highest quartiles of UA levels were found to be at a significantly higher risk of cognitive deterioration than those in the lowest quartiles. In sex-specific quartiles, the highest quartile showed an increased risk of cognitive deterioration, and a greater than fourfold increase in the risk in the highest quartiles was confirmed using multivariate regression models. However, no significant association was observed between serum UA levels and the presence of white matter lesions. Conclusions: Elevated serum UA levels were independently associated with cognitive deterioration. UA might have unknown adverse effects on cognitive function, other than causing vascular pathology.

(Continued from No. 109, p. 1o.) With P1. I.The most noteworthy recent work including the general morphological questions of Ginkgo flower is (JELAKOVSKY'S lie Gymnospermen. E ine morphologisch-phylogenetische Studie." His views in regard to the morphology of Ginkgo flower are as follows :-The so-called seed-stalk of Ginkgo is a shoot that arises, as in Araucariace, in the axil of a bract and serves as the flower-axis, producing usually two, but sometimes four decussate carpels. Each carpet is greatly reduced, its terminal portion being transformed, after the manner of Cycas, into a single ovule, and this terminal portion is alone developed ; and very rarely that is, in flowers with four ovules) the stalk-like basal portions are seen. There occur, however, two-ovuled (then stalked) divided carpels; and this fact proves that the cup-shaped swelling at the base of the Ginkgo ovule is only an annular fold of the carpel, corresponding to that of the Cycas ovule'.Thus he considers the female flower as a real single flower. Further he considers the entire brachyblast of Ginkgo as an inflorescence, which is not closed to form a cone but open and diaphitic, and in which the subtending leaf' of a flower is a normal foliage leaf (or a scaly leaf). He suggests also that the flowers of both sexes in Proconiferce " were much more alike (the female nearly like the manyovuled, decussate, pleocarpellary variation of Ginkgo) and similarly i~ "Beferat ," Bat. Geitung, Jahrgang 49