244 



MAGNOLIACE.E. 



[part ii. 



together; and, when 



buds enveloped in one long spathe-like bract, 

 as shown in Jig. 105. The ovaries grow close 

 ripe, the carpels, which 

 look like the scales of a 

 fir-cone (see fig. 106), 

 burst by a slit down the 

 back; and the seeds, 

 which are covered with a 

 red juicy pulp, burst out, 

 and hang down by a long 

 white thread, which in 

 the course of a few days 

 withers away. The princi- 

 pal species of American 

 Magnolias are the ever- 

 green Magnolia, or Big 

 Laurel {M. grandifiora) ; 

 the Umbrella Tree (M. 

 tripetala)^ which grows 

 like a shrub with several stems rising from the 

 ground ; the Cucumber-tree (M. acuminata)^ the 

 flowers of which are bluish and the leaves pointed ; 

 Beaver wood (M. glauca), the flowers of which 

 are small, and the leaves covered with a glaucous 

 bloom ; M. auriculata, M. pyramidata and M. 

 inacrophylla^ which are nearly allied to the Cu- 

 cumber-tree ; and M. cordata, the flowers of which 

 are yellowish. All these Magnohas produce their 

 leaves before their flowers ; and in this also they 



Fig. 106. — Thk ripe fruit axd 



seeds of the evergreen 



Magnolia. 



