366 DECIDIOUS TREES. 



THE MAGNOLIA. Magnolia. 



The magnolias are suggestive of all the voluptuous luxuriance 

 of tropical vegetation. Rapid growth, immense leaves, great blos- 

 soms powerfully odorous, all combine to create an impression of 

 trees at home in a warmer zone than that of our northern States. 

 All the large species are, however, natives of our country, and it is 

 believed that with intelligent care the finest of them, excepting only 

 the evergreen magnolia, {grandiflord) may be domesticated and 

 grown to their full size as far north as the southern borders of the 

 great lakes, where the altitude does not exceed seven hundred feet 

 above the sea. 



The cucumber magnolia {M. acuminata) grows to great size in 

 forests at the west end of Lake Erie and in New Jersey, but entirely 

 disappears in the forests a little further north. Latitude 42° may 

 therefore be considered about its northern limit, and that of the 

 magnolia family. 



Michaux speaks of the umbrella magnolia, M. tripeteia, being 

 found in the northern part of the State of New York ; but our 

 eminent botanist, Gray, in his official report of the botanical survey 

 of that State discredits this statement, having failed to find it except 

 near the Pennsylvania border. It is found in greatest abundance 

 in the upper portions of the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. 



The great-leaved magnolia, M. macrophylla, was not found 

 by Michaux except in North Carolina and Tennessee ; the ever- 

 green magnolia, M. grandiflora, always further south •, while the 

 swamp magnolia, M. glanca, is indigenous from Massachusetts to 

 Louisian.T 



From these diversities of native habitats it may be safe to infer 

 that most of the magnolia family may be domesticated on our 

 lawns in the middle States, and in the northern States south of the 

 great lakes, and probably in that part of Canada between Lake 

 Ontario and the Detroit River. 



Some species, which have been introduced from China and 

 Japan, are quite as hardy as the hardiest natives ; and crosses be- 

 tween these and our indigenous species have been made which are 



