Addisonia 55 



(Plate 108) 



MAGNOLIA KOBUS 

 Thurber's Magnolia 



Native oj Japan 

 Family Magnouac^ae Magnoua Family 



Magnolia Kobus D. C. Syst. 1 : 456. 1818. 



A tree with a narrow pyramidal outline, said to attain in a wild 

 state a height of eighty feet, but in cultivation of much lower stature 

 and flowering when only twelve or fifteen feet tall. The branchlets 

 are slender and glabrous. The alternate leaves are glabrous, with 

 the exception sometimes of yellowish hairs on the bases of the peti- 

 oles, which rarely exceed a half inch in length. The blades, measur- 

 ing up to six inches long, but commonly under four, and usually 

 under two inches broad, are obovate-cuneate, chartaceous, with the 

 venation conspicuous, and the margins entire; the apex is obtuse or 

 abruptly acuminate, and they are narrowed from the middle into 

 a short petiole. The bud-scales are clothed with long yellowish 

 appressed hairs. The flowers, which appear normally before the 

 leaves, terminate the branches, are white, sometimes flushed with 

 rose at the centre, and have a diameter of four or five inches. The 

 sepals are green, narrow, and do not exceed half the length of the 

 thin petals, which are oblanceolate, obtuse, and two to two and a 

 half inches long. The stamens are yellow, much shorter than 

 the petals. The fruit is two inches or more long, unsymmetric, 

 usually curved. The seeds are orange. 



This magnolia, while not as showy as some of the others, is valua- 

 ble for its symmetric habit of growth and its great hardiness. Its 

 flowers appear before the leaves, late in April or early May, rarely at 

 a later date. While not borne as profusely as in some of the other 

 species, their white color makes them attractive and conspicuous. 

 The fruit is usually mature about September, the orange seeds 

 adding an attraction. The specimen from which the illustration 

 was prepared has been in the collections of the New York Botanical 

 Garden for about fifteen years. 



This species is quite common in the forests of Japan, was in- 

 troduced into the United States by Thomas Hogg, and distributed 

 from the Parsons' Nurseries as Magnolia Thurberi, under which 

 name it is still sometimes referred to in horticultural literature. 



The genus Magnolia is widely distributed in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, being found in eastern North America, including the West 



