Ranales.] 



MAGNOLIACE/E. 



417 



Order CLI. MAGNOLlACEiE.— Magnoliads. 



Magnolia?, Juss. Gen. 280. (1789.)— Magnoliacea?, DC. Si/.st. 1. 4.39. (1818); Prodr 1. 77. (1824); Blune 

 Fl. Jav. ; Endl. Gen. clxx-vi. ; Meisner Gen. p. 3.; Wight Illuslr. 1. 9.— Winterea?, R. Brown in 

 De Cand. St/st. 1. 548. (1818.)— lUicieae, DC. Prodr. 1. 77. (1824), a section of Magnoliacew. 

 DiAGXOSis. — Banal Exogens, with distinct carpels, (usually) large convolute stipules, an 

 imbncated corolla, and homogeneous cdbumen. 

 Fine trees or shrubs. Scales of the leaf-bud fonned of stipules either placed face to 

 face or rolled up. Leaves alternate, sometimes with pellucid dots, coriaceous, articu- 

 lated distinctly w-ith the stem ; usually with deciduous stipules which, when young, 

 ai'e rolled together like those of 

 Ficus, and mark the branches with 

 ringed scars where they fall off. 

 Flowers sohtary, often strongly 

 odoriferous, usually 0, but in 

 Tasmannia ^-0-'^ . Trochoden- 

 dron has neither calyx nor corolla. 

 Sepals 3-6 (rarely 2-4), deciduous. 

 Petals 3 or more, imbricated, 

 hypogynous,in several rows. Sta- 

 mens 00, distinct, hypogynous ; 

 anthers adnate, long. Carpels 

 several, ari*anged upon a torus 

 above the stamens, 1 -celled; ovules 

 anatropal, one or more, ascending 

 or suspended ; styles short, stig- 

 mas simple. Fruit either dry or 

 succulent, consisting of numerous 

 carpels, which are either dehis- 

 cent or indehiscent, distinct or 

 partially connate, always nume- 

 rous, often collected in a cone upon 

 a lengthened axis, sometimes ter- 

 minated by a membranous wing. Seeds 

 solitary, or several, attached to the inner 

 edge of the carpels, from which, when 

 ripe and open, they often hang suspended 

 by a deUcate umbihcal cord, often enve- 

 loped in an aril. Embryo minute, at the 

 base of fleshy albumen. 



In this Order are included some of the 

 finest trees and shrubs in the world, strik- 

 ingly beautiful m their flowers and foliage, 

 often of very considerable size, and in the 

 majority of cases emitting the most fra- 

 grant odours. They are closely allied to 

 Dilleniads, which have a quinary arrange- 

 ment of the calyx and corolla and no sti- 

 pules, and to Ajionads, which also have a 

 ternary arrangement of the floral enve- 

 lopes and a very great similarity in general 

 structure ; but in that Order the petals 

 have a valvate aestivation, and no stipules 

 are present, besides which the albumen 

 is ruminated Uke that of a Nutmeg. In 

 Winter's Barks, or Wintereee, which do 

 not seem to possess any solid distinction 

 from Magnoliads, the wood has been ob- 

 served to present the singular circular 



disks which are so abimdant and remark- 1 ¥\g.CCXC.bis. 



able in Coniferous plants.* The genus Tasmannia, called in books dioecious, seems 



=■' This has heen denied or confirmed, I hardly know which, by Goeppert, who, in a Memoir on the 

 subject says in one place that the woody tubes of Drimys Winteri are constnicted " comme nous les 

 voyons chez les Araucaria," and in another he calls this a resemblance " remarquable sans doute, mais 

 qu'on ne saurait confondre avec celle des Coniferes."— ^?m. Sc. Nat. 2. ser. 18. .320. 



Fig. CCXC. 6?*.— Magnolia glauca, 1. the pistil ; 2. a section of the seed. 

 E £ 



