4 SILVA OF NOBTII AMERICA. MACxoLiACEiE. 



Swamp Chestnut Oak, tlie Water Oak, the Willow Oak, the Beech, the Horabeam, the Black Gum, the 

 Water Gum, the Great Tupelo, and the Liquidamber. 



The wood of Magnolia faitida is harder, heavier, and more valuable than that of the other 

 North American Magnolias. The thick sapwood generally consists of seventy to eighty layers of annual 

 growth ; it is creamy white, soon turning light brown with exposure, and is not easily distinguished 

 from the rather lighter heartwood. This when perfectly dry has a specific gravity of 0.G3G0, a cubic 

 foot of the dry wood weighing 39.64 pounds. The wood of this tree is little used except for fuel, 

 although well suited for the finer kinds of cabinet work and the interior finish of houses. 



It does not a-p^eav who first brought Magnolia fcetida to the attention of European botanists. 

 The earliest account, that of Phikenet, was published in his AmaliJmim Botankum in 1705.^ It is 

 not known wdio first introduced living plants into Europe ; a single specimen, said to have been brought 

 from the banks of the Mississii^pi, w^as planted near Nantes in 1732 ; ^ and two years later, according to 

 Aiton,^ it was cultivated in Sir John Colleton's garden at Exmouth in Devonshire. Magnolia feet Ida 

 is the most splendid ornamental tree of the North American forests. It is now widely cultivated in the 

 extreme southern states, and has become a strildng and beautiful feature in the gardens and streets of 

 many southern cities. It is precariously hardy as far north as Philadelphia. It has been generally 

 introduced into the gardens of temperate Europe and Asia, although in Great Britain often rec^niring 

 the protection of a w^all to insure its blooming. 



Several varieties have appeared at different times in European nursery-gardens, especially in those 



of central and western France, where the propagation of the evergreen Magnolia has been an important 



industry since its first Introduction. These varieties differ principally in the form of the leaf and in the 



duration of the flowering period. The variety ExoniensiS;^ raised in England early in this century, with 



a rather fastigiate habit of gi-owth, oblong elliptical leaves densely clothed with tomentum on the lower 



surface, and somewhat contracted flowers, is considered in that country the most distinct, and, from its 



habit of flowering when only a few feet high, the most valuable for cultivation. The variety aagustl- 



folia, which aj^peared at Angers about 1825, is one of the most distinct and permanent of these seminal 



varieties.^ The variety proicox, another French variety, is distinguished by early and continuous 

 bloomino-. 



o 



1 Tidipifera arbor Floridana, lauri longe ampUoribus splendentihus a Merlet de la Eoulaye, Nouveau Dahamel, u. 220. 



ei densioribus foliis, fore majore albo, 206. a ^^^;_ j^^^^_ ;;_ o-^. 



Magnolia allissima, fiore ingenti candido, Catesty, Nat. Hist. Car. ^ Loudon, Arb. Brit. i. 2G1. — Loddlges, Bot. Cab t 8U 



ii. t. 61._Duhame], Traite des Arbres, ii. 1, t. 1. 5 Another narrow-leaved form with curiously undulatlii^^ leaf- 



Magndia folus oblongis subtusferruglniis,Jlore amplissimo candido, margins, of unknown origin, is now found in the gardens of^north- 



haccis rubdUs, Trew, PL Elret. 8, t. 33. 35, f. 2. ern Italy under the name of '' Magnolia Hart.egas." 



Magnolia fohis lanceolatis persistentibus, caule erecto arhoreo, Miller, 

 Did. Icon. ii. 115, t. 172. 



EXPLANATIO:^ OF THE PLATES. 



Plate I. Magnolia fcetida. 

 A flowering branch, natural size. 



Plate II. Magnolia fcetida. 



1. A fruit, natural size. S A .„ i .i, i 



2. Diagram of the tlower. J;^t ^ , ■ ' '' '"'^"'^ '' ''^ '"^^ "■ 

 o A fl „ 1 7 ■ „ , ' '^'^^S ttie stony interior portion, enlarged. 



6. A tlower, the calyx and coroUa removed, natural size. . 9. A seed tl... flp.i,,. ^..f p *i * . , , . , 



4. A stamen, enlarged. J , ' ^ ^''' "^ '^" *"'*" ''"^"''''^^ ^'^^^"'^^ ^'^« 



.,...'. V gi-ooved stony portion, enlarged. 



o. ^ ertKa sect.on of the gyncecium, natural size. 10. Cross section of a seed, enlarged 



b. An ovule, enlarged. 1 1 a , 



„ ,r ^. , ,. p , ^^- -^'1 embryo, much enlarged. 



i. V ertical section of a seed, enlarged. 12 a,,-,, t, , , , . 



^ -i-i. A winter-hud, natural size. 



