MAGNOLIACEiE. 



SILVA OF NOB Til A2IERICA. 



13 



MAGNOLIA TRIPETALA, 



Umbrella Tree. Elk Wood. 



Leaves oboyate-lanccolate. 



Fruit and -winter-buds glabrous. 



Magnolia tripetala, Linnffius, Spec. ed. 2, 756. — Miller, 

 Dtc(!. ed. 8. — Jlai-shall, Arhust. Am. 84 — Walter, Fl. 

 Car. 159. — Willdenow, Spec. ii. 1258.— Michaux, Fl. 

 Bor.-Am. i. 327. — Desfontalnes, JfLSt. ^r5. ii. 5. — Mi- 

 . cbaux i. Hist. Arh. Am. iil. 90, t. 5. — Pursh, Fl. Am. 

 Sept. ii. 381. — Nuttall, Gen. Ii. 18. ~ Guimpel, Otto & 

 Haync, Ahbild. Holz. 20, t. 18.— Hayne, Dendr. Fl 

 116. — P:mott, 8h. ii. 38. — Loudon, Arh. Brit i. 269, t. — 

 Jaume St. Illlaire, Flore et Fomone, v. t. 449.— Kochj 



Dendr. i. 370. 

 M. Virginianaj S. tripetala, LinnKus, Spec. 536. 



M. Umbrella, Lamarck, Diet. iii. 673. — H^ouvcnu Duha- 

 mel, ii. 221. — De Candollc, Sijst. i. 452 ; Frodr. i. SO. — 

 Loiseleur, Herh. Amat. iii. t. 108. ^ Don, Gen. Si/st. i. 

 83. — Torrey & Gray, Fl. iV. Am. i. 43. — Dietrich, S'J7U 

 iii. 308. — Spaeh, /r;si. Veg. vil. 475. — Gray, Gen. III. 

 i. 62, t. 24; Jour. Linn. Soc. ii. 106, f. 1-18. — Cliapman, 

 Fl. 13. — Curtis, Geolof/. Snrv. N. Car. 1860, iH. 67.— 

 Salient, Forest Trees iV. Am. IQtfi Census U. S. ix. 21. — 

 "Watson & Coulter, Grays Ilan. cd. 6, 49. 



M. frondosa, Salisbury, Prodr. 379. 



A small tree, thirty to forty feet liig-li, witli a straight or often inclining trunk rarely more than 

 eighteen inches in diameter, generally much smaller, and sometimes surrounded by several stems spring- 

 in- from its base and grooving into a large bush surmounted by the head of the principal trunh. The 

 branches are often developed irregularly ; they are contorted, or are ^-ide-spreading nearly at right 

 auo-les with the stem, or turn up towards the extremities and then grow parallel with it. The bark on old 

 trunks and branches Is half an inch thick, light gray, smooth, and marked with numerous small blister- 

 like excrescences ; that of the stout brittle branches is green during the first year, turnmg brown durmg 

 the second, and gray during the third season. The large ^nter-buds are purple and covered w.th a 

 o-laucous bloom. The leaves are membranaceous, bright green, oh ovate-lanceolate, pomted at both ends, 

 and covered on the lower surface, when they first appear, with a thick silky tomentum. They are quite 

 glabrous at maturity, and are then eighteen or twenty inches long and eight or ten inches broad, with a 

 short stout petiole an inch and a half long, and a prominent midrib. The creamy white flowers, four or 

 five inches deep, appear during the month of May and exhale a strong disagreeable odor. The sepals 

 are narrowly obovate, five or six inches long, one and a half inches broad, thin, light green, and reflexed. 

 The six or nine petals are concave, coriaceous, ovate-unguiculate ; those of the outer row are four 

 or five inches long and sometimes two inches broad, those of the inner rows bemg shorter and much 

 narrower. The filaments are bright purple. The fruit is ovate, two and a half to four mches long, 



and bright rose-colored when fully ripe. ^ . 



mgnoUa tripetala is.4dely distributed in all the Alleghany-mounta.n region from -"«- " J-- 

 syWani/to central Alabama, extending in the south Atlantic states neariy to the coast, and .-^ of th 

 mountains to middle Kentucky and Tennessee and northeastern M.ss.s,pp>, roappeanng beyond the 



Mississippi Ei.er in central and -^'l™-'-" ^^^^^^^^.^ „.^^„ „ „„, ;„ jeep and rather moist rich 

 Jia(/«o/M iripci-rfa IS nowhere common. It gro^ s naturaiiy o y i 



soil. Itlcnpies L banhs of mountain streams, sp^ging from _ o ^ ^-J^^^^^^-^. 

 is found on the margins of the great swamps which extend along the rneis 



it is shaded by forests of the Swamp Chestnut Oak, the Scarlet Maple, and «- ^j" f^^'^^ -;;' 

 reaches its greatest size in the valleys which extend from the western slopes of the Great Smoky Moun 



"^^^17 M.,n^ia tHp^aJa is light, soft, close-grained, but not strong. The heartwood is 



