Magnolia umbrella, 
THE UMBRELLA MAGNOLIA. 
Magnolia tripetata, 
Magnolia umbrella, 
Magnolier parasol, Arbre parasol, 
Dreyblattriger Bieberbaum, Dreyblat- 
trige Magnolie, 
Elkwood, 
Umbrella-tree, Umbrella Magnolia, 
Synonymes. 
'Linn^us, Species Plantarum. 
Willdenow, Berlinische Baumzucht. 
Michaux, North American Sylva. 
Pursh, Flora America? Septentrionalis. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Don, Miller's Dictionary. 
Torrey and Gray, Flora of North America. 
France. 
Germany. 
Virginia. 
Other parts of the United States. 
Derivations. This species is called Umbrella-tree on account of the leaves being disposed somewhat in the form of an 
umbrella. It is called Elkwood in the mountains of Virginia, probably from the resemblance which the points of the shoots 
bear to the horns of the elk. The French names merely signify Umbrella-tree, and the German ones, the Three-petaled Beaver- 
tree or Magnolia. 
Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pi. 55; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, v., pi. 5; and the figures below. 
Specific Characters. Deciduous. Leaves lanceolate, spreading, adult ones smooth, younger ones pubes- 
cent underneath. Petals 9 12, exterior ones pendant. Don, Miller's Diet. 
Description. 
HE dimensions of the Magno- 
lia umbrella are such as to 
form a connecting link be- 
^P"w tween the large shrubs and 
trees of the third order ; although it sometimes rises 
to the height of thirty-five or forty feet, with a diam- 
eter of five or six inches, it rarely attains this size. 
The stem is seldom erect, but generally inclined, and 
rises, from the root in twos or threes. The bark on 
the trunk is gray, smooth, and polished, and if cut 
when green, exhales a disagreeable odour. The leaves 
are eighteen or twenty inches long, and seven or eight 
inches broad. They are thin, oval, and acuminate at 
both extremities. They are often disposed in rays at J 
the extremity of vigorous shoots ; and these display 
a surface of two and a half feet in diameter, in the 1 
form of an umbrella. The flowers, which open in 
May or June, are seven or eight inches in diameter, 
with large, white, flaccid petals. They are placed on 
the extremities of the last year's shoots, have a languid, luxuriant appearance, 
and a strong odour. The fruit is five or six inches long, and about two inches 
in diameter. It ripens in America about the beginning of October, and about 
the same period in England and France. It is conical in its form, of a beautiful 
rose-colour, and usually contains from fifty to sixty pale-red seed. 
Varieties. In 1836, at Desio, near Milan, in Italy, several young hybrid plants 
were raised from seeds which had been fecundated with the pollen of the Mag- 
