Addisonia 37 



(Plate 211) 



MAGNOLIA STELLATA 

 Starry Magnolia 



Native oj Japan 



Family Magnoliaceae Magnolia Family 



Buergcria stellata Sieb. & Zucc. Abh. Akad. Miinch. 4': 186. pi. 2 A. 1845. 

 Talauma stellata Miq. Ann. Mus. Bot. Lug^i.-Bat. 2: 257. 1866. 

 Magnolia stellata Maxim. Bull. Acad. St.-Petersb. 17: 478. 1872. 

 Magnolia Halleana Parsons, Garden 13: 372. 1878. 



The starry magnolia is a satisfactory species for cultivation, 

 being hardy in New York and New England, but because of its 

 blooming from the middle of April to May it is sometimes caught 

 by late spring frosts. It usually begins to bloom when not more 

 than two feet high, but eventually becomes tree-like. In cultivation 

 it was first known in the United States as Magnolia Halleana, a 

 name bestowed by the late S. B. Parsons in honor of Dr. George 

 R. Hall by whom it was introduced from Japan, being delivered 

 to the Parsons' Nurseries at Flushing, Long Island, in or about 

 1862. M. Halleana is an older name than the combination M. 

 stellata, but the species was probably not botanically described 

 under that name before the publication by Maximowicz of M. 

 stellata in 1872. However, the plant had long before this received 

 the name stellata under the genus Buergeria and later in transfer 

 to Talauma, so that Magnolia stellata has priority over M. Halleana 

 in botanical nomenclature. 



A deciduous shrub or small tree, bearing many showy flowers in 

 advance of the leaves. The branches are many and spreading, 

 with short internodes, terete, gray or brown, at first hairy but 

 becoming glabrous except near the buds and perhaps toward the 

 end; the terminal winter-buds are large, densely silky- woolly; the 

 lateral winter-buds are rather small but prominent, erect and 

 usually appressed, also silky-woolly. The leaves are two to four 

 or five inches long, oblong-obovate or elliptic, obtuse or short- 

 pointed at the apex, the blade narrowed to a petiole one fourth to 

 three eighths of an inch in length, firm and rather stiff in texture, 

 the margins entire but often obscurely undulate, dull green and 

 somewhat shining above, hairy-pubescent on the veins beneath 

 when young but becoming smooth and the midrib and cross-veins 

 very prominent, with a fine network between. The flowers are 

 about three inches across at full anthesis, freely produced, white 

 or with more or less faint pencillings of pink, or sometimes (var. 



