MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA. 23 



time one magnificent specimen cannot measure less than from 

 fifty to sixty feet in height, feathered to the ground with branches ; 

 this is one of the most beautiful trees of the kind I have ever 

 seen. 



Let us inquire under what circumstances these plants have been 

 grown. Mount Vernon consists of high ground, sloping to the 

 river; by nature, it is therefore well drained; the soil is a sandy 

 loam on a gravelled bottom ; under such conditions is it to be 

 wondered at that plants thrive? The winters there must be fully 

 as severe as about Washington ; cold, therefore, such as I have been 

 describing, will not hurt the plant. The summers are long and 

 intensely hot; the dry burning heat and brilliant sun which are 60 

 fatal to many English evergreens, roasting their foliage com- 

 pletely off, have no ill effect upon the Magnolia; on the contrary, 

 they have a good effect, for the trees evidently enjoy the warmth, 

 and why not ? they are at home in it ; and this intense heat, 

 burning sun, and well-drained soil, have produced the fine 

 Magnolias, about which we have been speaking. 



If cultivators in England, therefore, wish to follow nature and 

 attain success, they must plant in well-drained soil, (no matter 

 what sort if well drained,) in an open airy situation where the 

 tree will get all the sun that the British climate can possibly 

 afford, and there is not much fear of the results. No cold in 

 England will hurt the Magnolia, provided the wood is well ripened, 

 and it may be planted out, as standards in the most northern 

 counties. In this country, where the wood is well matured, it 

 blooms in a very young state and most abundantly, from the 

 middle to the end of June. I have known persons in England 

 regularly house their young plants in winter ; there is, however, 

 no necessity for this if the wood is ripe. How often is this plant 

 turned out against a south wall on a well-made border, and well 

 sheltered : in such situations the plant grows freely, very often 

 too freely and late, if it is not injured by frost ; the wood is so 

 soft and unripe that it cannot produce a bloom, until the plant is 

 comparatively old and stunted. The only trees in Britain which 

 I should consider properly placed were those to which I have 

 alluded in the Isle of Wight and Devonshire; there they appeared 

 to me to have been planted chiefly in the natural well-drained 

 soil, in which they did not grow so rapidly as in rich borders ; 

 they grew moderately, very bushy, ripened their wood well, and 

 tbe result was abundance of bloom. As to plants, seed to any 

 extent might be had from the southern states, and the plants 



