THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP-TREE 167 



unknown but the fact that the species are distinct in each region, 

 i.e., in AustraHa, New Caledonia, New Zealand and America, 

 indicates that they were very ancient immigrants into those regions 

 before the present geography had come into existence. 



These items regarding the family seem to me to be of sufficient 

 general interest to warrant mentioning them in an introduction 

 to the two types in the family that are the subject of this chapter, 

 and I have shown the modern distribution of the family, as out- 

 Kned above, on the accompanying sketch map (figure 35). 



THE MAGNOLIA 



I expect that to most of us magnolia means the large pinkish 

 flowered exotics of our lawns and parks which have been so gen- 

 erally planted in recent years; or perhaps the word suggests the 

 fragrant yellowish white blossoms of the swamp magnoha of our 

 eastern States which are sometimes peddled by street vendors in 

 the cities of our Atlantic seaboard. It we come from the rural 

 south, or have visited some of the old towns, such as Augusta, 

 Georgia, we will be acquainted with the tall tree with shiny ever- 

 green leaves which is just "magnolia" and without which the 

 door yard of any southern mansion was incomplete. This last is 

 a large and handsome tree, and was formerly frequently planted 

 in the yards of the older and more pretentious houses as far north- 

 ward as Baltimore and Philadelphia. 



There are about a score of existing magnolias, the name itself 

 being in honor of Pierre Magnol, professor of botany at Montpellier, 

 who died in 1715, Of these about one-third are natives in south- 

 eastern North America, and the balance occur from the Himalayas 

 eastward in southeastern Asia. Several of these Asiatic forms 

 put forth their large blossoms before they unfold their leaves, and 

 it is these that are much used for ornamental plantings throughout 

 the Temperate Zone. 



All of the magnolias have rather large showy blossoms, and the 

 leaves vary a great deal from species to species in both their form 

 and consistency. Our large leaved cucumber-tree, Magnolia 

 macro phylla, has the distinction of having the largest entire leaves 



