MAGXOLIACBjE. 



SUVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



MAGNOLIA ACUMINATA. 



Cucumber Tree. Mountain Magnolia. 



Leaves deciduous, ovate or subcordate. 

 ter-buds densely pubescent. 



Magnolia acuminata, Linnaeus, Sj^ec. ed. 2, 756. — Miller, 

 Diet. ed. 8. — Marshall, Arhust. Am. 83. — Walter, Fl. 

 Car. 159. — Lamarck, Diet. iii. 674. — Willdenow, S^jec. 

 ii. 1257. — Miehaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 328. — Nouveau Dit- 

 liamel, ii. 222. — Desfontaines, Hist. Arh. ii. 5. — Mi- 

 ehaux f. Hist. Arb. Am,, iii. 82, t. 3. — PursJi, Fl. Am. 

 Sept. ii. 381. — De Candolle, Sijst. i. 453 ; Frodr. i. 80. -— 

 Loddlges, Bot. Cab. t. 418. — Nuttall, Gen. ii. 18. —^o^. 

 Maff. t. 2427. — Hayne, Hendr. Fl. 117. — EiHott, Sk. 

 ii. 37. — Guimpel, Otto & Hayne, Ahbild. Holz. 18, t. 

 17. — Torrey, Fl. N. Y. i. 28. — Sertum Botamcimi,v. t. — 

 Don, Gen. S^/st. i. 83. — Reichenbach, FL Exot. iv. t. 



Fruit glabrous. Young shoots and win^ 



.251. — Loudon, Arh. Brit. i. 273, t. — Jaume St. Hilaire, 

 Flore et Fomone, v. t. 450. — Torrey & Gray, Fl. ^\ Am. 

 i. 43. — Dietrich, Sijn. iii. 308. — Darlington, Fl. Cestr. 

 ed. 3, 9. — Chapmau, FL 14. — Curtis, Geolog. Surv. if. 

 Car. 1860, iii. 67. — Baillon, Hist. FL I 140. — Koch, 

 Dendr. i. 371. — Sargent, Forest Trees N. Avi. Vdth Cen- 

 sus U. S. ix. 20. — Lloyd, Dniffs and Med. JS'. Am. ii. 

 29, t. 29, f. 116, 117. — Watson & Coulter, Grab's Ma7i. 

 ed. 6, 49. 



M. Virginiana, e. acuminata, Linnreus, <S^)ec. 536. 

 M. De CandoUii, Savi, BibL ItaL i. 224, t. 

 Tulipastrum Americanum, Spac-h, Hist. Veg. vii. 483. 



A tall slender tree, attaining in its native forests a height of sixty to ninety feet, with a trunk tln-ee 

 or four feet in diameterj or, "wliere it finds sufficient room for the development of its lower brunches, 

 assuming a broadly pyramidal habit. Tlie bark of the trunk is a third to half an inch tliick, furrowed, 

 dark brown, the surface broken into numerous thin scales ; that of the slender young branches is bright 

 red-brown, turning gray during their third season. The leaves are membranaceous, oblong, pointed, 

 sometimes rounded or slightly cordate at the base, strengthened by a prominent midrib and primary 

 veins, and borne on slender petioles an inch or an inch and a half long. They are seven to ten inches 

 long and four to six inches broad, and are coated, when they first appear, with white silky hairs which 

 are longest and most abundant on the lower surface. These soon disappear, and at maturity the leaves 

 are glabrous on the upper and slightly pubescent on the lower surface. The bell-shaped glaucous green 

 or pale yellow flowers appear from April to June. The sepals are membranaceous, acute, an inch or an 

 inch and a half long, and soon reflexed. The six petals are obovate, concave, pointed, two and a half 

 to three and a half inches long ; those of the outer row rarely more than an inch broad ; those of the 

 inner row narrower and often acuminate. The fruit is ovate or oblong, often curved, dark red, two and 

 a half to three inches long, and rarely more than an inch broad. 



Magnolia acuminata first appears at the north in western New York ; it extends westward through 

 southern Ontario to southern Illinois, and southward on the Appalachian ranges to southern Alabama ^ 

 and northeastern Mississippi.^ It occurs sparingly in central Kentucky and Tennessee, and reappears 

 w^est of the Mississippi River in northeastern and in southern and southwestern Arkansas. 



Magnolia acuminata is rare at the north, and is nowhere sufficiently coimnon to be a characteristic 

 feature of the forest. It flourishes on the lower slopes of mountains, on the rocky banks of streams, 

 and in narrow valleys, reaching Its greatest size and abundance In those about the base of the high moun- 

 tains of Carolina and Tennessee. Its usual companions in the forest, the Tulip Poplar, the "White Oak, 

 the White Ash, the Hickories, and the Sugar Maple, indicate the presence of the generous soil and 

 humid climate essential to Its multi2)lication and best development. 



The wood of Magnolia acuminata is light, soft, satiny, not strong, but close-grained and durable. 

 It is fio-ht yellow-brown in color, and has, when perfectly dry, a specific gravity of 0.4690, a cubic foot 



1 Stockton, C. Mohr. ^ JMeridiaii, C. Molir. 



