O ' MAGNOLIA GRAND1FLORA. 
strobiles have dropped off, or any dead or decayed wood, and branches which 
cross and rub on each other. For a few years after being planted as a standard, 
it may be advisable to protect it during winter, by forming a small cone of 
thatch or straw round the stem, after the manner of M. Boursault, of Paris, as 
described in Loudon's "Arboretum." 
Casualties. In southern Florida, the Epidendrum conopseum grows parasiti- 
cally upon the Magnolia grandiflora and other trees. 
Properties and Uses. The medicinal virtues of this magnificent tree were 
familiar to the southern Indians, while they were accustomed proudly to point it 
out as the glory of the forest. The bark of its roots was used by them in Flor- 
ida, in combination with snake-root, as a substitute for the Peruvian bark, in the 
treatment of intermittents. 
" If fever's fervid rage 
Glow'd in the boiling veins," * * * * 
***** " They woo'd thy potent spell, 
Magnolia grandiflora; to supply 
The place of fam'd Cinchona, whose rough brow 
Now ruddy, and anon with paleness mark'd, 
Drinks in its native bed, the genial gales 
Of mountainous Peru." 
Traits of the Aborigines. 
The wood of this tree is but little used in the arts or for fuel. It is soft, and 
remarkable for its whiteness, which it preserves even after it is seasoned, and 
when dry, weighs from twenty-seven to thirty pounds to a cubic foot. It is 
easily wrought, and is not liable to warp ; but when exposed to the alternations 
of moisture and dryness, it soon decays. For this reason the boards are used 
only in joinery in the interior of buildings In trees from fifteen to eighteen 
inches in diameter there cannot be discerned any mark of distinction between 
the sap and heart- wood, except a deep-brown space about half of an inch in 
diameter near the centre of the trunk. In general, the utility of the Magnolia 
grandiflora can only be considered in the light of an ornament to plantations and 
shrubberies, or to the more refined beds of the conservatory. 
