20 MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA. 
A notice of this variety will be found under the head of history. The chief dif- 
ference between this tree and the species, consists in its leaves being larger and 
more pointed, its flowers marked with purple within, and its fruit larger and 
containing more seeds. 
2. M. c. alexandrina, Loudon. The Empress Alexandrine? s Conspicuous- 
flowered Magnolia. This variety so closely resembles the preceding, that it 
cannot be distinguished, except in flowering somewhat earlier. 
Geography and History. The Magnolia conspicua is said to be indigenous to 
the southern provinces of China; and to be extensively cultivated there in the 
gardens of the emperor, and in those of all eminent persons, who can afford to 
procure it. It began to be cultivated in that country in the year 627, from which 
time it has always held the very first rank, as an ornamental tree, in their gar- 
dens, and is regarded by the Chinese poets as the symbol of candour and beauty. 
It is not only planted in the open grounds, and allowed to attain its full size, 
but dwarfs are kept in pots and boxes, and forced throughout the year, so as to 
keep up a perpetual supply of bloom in the apartments of the imperial palace. 
So highly is this tree valued, that a plant in flower, presented to the emperor, is 
thought a handsome present. In very severe winters, the trunks of the trees in 
the open air are sometimes wrapped round with straw ropes ; but it never 
requires any other protection, even in the climate of Pekin. 
The tree was first introduced into England by Sir Joseph Banks, in 17S9 ; but 
it was many years before it attracted much attention, being considered merely 
as a green-house, or conservatory plant. Within the last twenty years, it has 
been discovered to be nearly as hardy as the American magnolias, and is now 
most extensively cultivated in the nurseries of Britain, continental Europe, and 
the United States. It flowers freely every year, as a standard in the neighbour- 
hood of London, New York, and Philadelphia, when the wood has been prop- 
erly ripened during the preceding summer ; and at White Knights, in England ; at 
Fromont, and various other places in France; and at Monza, in Italy, and Brook- 
lyn, in New York, it has ripened seeds from which young plants have been raised. 
At Fromont, near Paris, in front of the chateau of M. Soulange-Bodin, stands 
the largest plant of the Magnolia conspicua in Europe. It measures over forty 
feet in height, and twenty-four inches in circumference, two feet from the ground ; 
and the diameter of the space covered by the branches is more than twenty-five 
feet. It flowers magnificently every year, at the end of March and beginning 
of April, and the perfume of its blossoms is perceived for some distance around. 
It was from the seeds of this tree that sprang the far-famed variety, Magnolia 
conspicua soidangea?ia, the leaves, wood, and general habits of which, are allied 
to those of the parent tree ; but the flowers resemble in form those of the Magno- 
lia purpurea, or of the Magnolia purpurea gracilis, and the petals are slightly 
tinged with purple. This variety was accidentally produced by fecundating the 
flowers of the Magnolia conspicua with the pollen of those of the Magnolia pur- 
purea. The original plant of the Magnolia conspicua soulangeana, at Fromont, 
is more than twenty feet in height, and though it flowered several years before, 
it did not ripen seeds till 1834. The seeds have been sown, and some new and 
interesting varieties produced from them. 
The largest Magnolia conspicua in England is at Eastwell Park, in Kent, 
which is reputed to be more than forty feet in height. An original imported 
plant, trained against a wall at Wormleybury, in England, measured twenty- 
seven feet in height, covered a space laterally of twenty-four feet, and had on it, 
in April, 1835, five thousand flowers ! 
In the garden of Mr. William Davison, in Brooklyn, New York, there is a 
Magnolia conspicua, ten years planted, twenty-four feet in height, with a head 
eighteen feet in diameter, which, in April, 1844, contained six thousand flowers ' 
