36 Magnolia < Magnoliacece) 



2. Family MAGNOLIACE^E. (Magnolia Fam.) 

 Genus Magnolia, L. (Magnolia.) 



From " Magnol," the name of a botanist of the 17th century. 



Fig. 2. Sweet-Bay. Swamp Laurel. Small Magnolia. 

 M. Virginictna, L. ( M. glauca, L.) 



Flowers, solitary, at the ends of the branches, two to 

 three inches across, white, very fragrant. Petals, six 

 to nine, not united. Sepals, three, colored like the 

 petals. Stamens, more than ten. Seed-cases, many, 

 free from the sepals, mostly clinging together over 

 the lengthened receptacle. June to August. 

 Leaves, three to six inches long, simple, alternate, edge 

 entire, thick and smooth, dark-green and polished 

 above, white below, the mid-vein green and distinct, 

 the side veins indistinct. 

 Bark, smoothish, light-gray, aromatic, and bitter. 

 Fruit, an oblong cone, fleshy or somewhat woody, red. 

 When mature the cells of this " cone" split, and the 

 enclosed bright-red seeds (one or two to each cell) 

 drop out and hang suspended by delicate spiral 

 threads. An aggregation of capsules. September. 

 Found, in swampy ground, from Massachusetts southward, 

 oftenest near the coast. 

 A bush, or sometimes a small tree, four to twenty-five 

 feet high. Southward it is often still higher, and its 

 leaves are evergreen. All parts of the bush, as in the 

 other magnolias, have an intensely bitter aromatic juice. 

 " The fresh bark has long been considered as a bitter, 

 aromatic tonic and gentle laxative." " The bark, cones, and 

 seeds have been used medicinally from the time of the 

 aborigines, especially against rheumatism and as an anti- 

 periodic." In wet ground it can be successfully cultivated. 



