322 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



surmounted by the head of the central stem. "Winter-buds: terminal, acute or 

 bluntly pointed, purple, glabrous, covered with a glacous bloom, usually about V 

 long; axillary globose, the color of the branch. Bark i' thick, light gray, smooth, 

 and marked by many small bristle-like excrescences. Wood light, soft, close- 

 grained, not strong, light brown, with creamy white sapwood of 35-40 layers of 

 annual growth. 



Distribution. Deep rather moist rich soil along the banks of mountain streams 

 or the margins of swamps, and widely distributed in the Appalachian Mountain 

 region, but nowhere very common; valley of the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, 

 to southern Alabama, middle Kentucky and Tennessee, northeastern Mississippi, and 



in central and southwestern Arkansas, extending in the south Atlantic states nearly 

 to the coast; of its largest size in the valleys along the western slopes of the Great 

 Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. 



Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern States, and in northern and 

 central Europe. 



6. Magnolia Fraseri, Walt. Mountain Magnolia. Long-leaved Cucumber- 

 tree. 



Leaves obovate-spatulate, acute or bluntly pointed at the apex, cordate and con- 

 spicuously auriculate at the base, bright green and often marked on the upper surface 

 when young with red along the principal veins, glabrous, 10'-12' long, 6'-7' wide, or 

 on vigorous young plants sometimes of twice that size, falling in the autumn without 

 change of color; their petioles slender, 3'-4' long. Flowers on stout glabrous pedun- 

 cles covered with a glaucous bloom and I'-l^ long, creamy white, sweetly scented, 

 8'-10' in diameter; sepals narrowly obovate, rounded at the apex, 4'-5' long, de- 

 ciduous almost immediately after the opening of the bud, shorter than the 6 or 9 

 obovate acuminate membranaceous spreading petals contracted below the middle, 

 those of the inner rows narrower and conspicuously narrowed below. Fruit oblong, 

 glabrous, bright rose-red when fully ripe, 4'-5' long, l^'-2' wide, the mature carpels 

 ending in long subulate persistent tips; seeds obovoid, compressed, |' long. 



