MAGNOLIACEiE 



319 



3. Magnolia acuminata, L. Cucumber-tree. Mountain Magnolia. 



Leaves oblong, pointed, sometimes rounded or slightly cordate at the base, 

 covered when they first appear with white silky caducous hairs longest and most 

 abundant on the lower surface, at maturity thin, glabrous above, slightly pubescent 

 below, T-10' long, 4:'-6' wide, with prominent midribs and primary veins, turning 

 yellow in the autumn before falling; their petioles slender, I'-l^' long. Flowers 

 on hairy soon glabrous peduncles ^'-f long, bell-shaped, glaucous, green or pale 

 yellow; sepals membranaceous, acute, I'-l^' long, soon reflexed; petals 6, ovate or 

 obovate, concave, pointed, erect, 2^'-3^' long, those of the outer row rarely more 

 than 1' broad and much broader than those of the inner row. Fruit ovate or oblong, 

 often curved, glabrous, dark red, 2^'-3' long, rarely more than 1' broad; seeds obo- 

 void, acute, compressed, about ^' long. 



A pyramidal tree, 60-90 high, with a trunk 3^ in diameter, comparatively 

 small branches spreading below and erect toward the top of the tree, and slender 

 branchlets coated at first with soft pale caducous hairs, soon bright red-brown, 



h(^- ^^ 



lustrous, and marked by numerous small pale lenticels, turning gray during their 

 third season. Winter-buds thickly covered with long lustrous white hairs, the 

 terminal ^'-^' long, and about three times as long as the obtuse lateral buds nearly 

 surrounded by the narrow elevated leaf -scars conspicuously marked by a double row 

 of large fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark ^'-^' thick, furrowed, dark brown, and 

 covered by numerous thin scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained and 

 durable, light yellow-brown, with thin lighter colored often nearly white sapwood 

 of usually 25-30 layers of annual growth; occasionally manufactured into lumber 

 used for flooring and cabinet-making. 



Distribution. Low mountain slopes and rocky banks of streams; western New 

 York, westward through southern Ontario to southern Illinois, and southward along 

 the Appalachian Mountains to southern Alabama, central Kentucky and Tennessee 

 and northeastern Mississippi, and in northeastern, southern, and southwestern Arkan- 

 sas; rare at the north; most abundant and of its largest size in the narrow valleys 

 at the base of the high mountains of the Carolinas and Tennessee. 



Often planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern states and in northern and 

 central Europe. 



