III. MAQNOL/^C^/E : MAGNOY/^. 25 



soil ought to be made firm to the fibrous roots, not by treading, but by 

 abundant watering, and, if the plant be large, by fixing with water ; that is, 

 while the earth is being carefully put about the roots by one man, another 

 should pour water from a pot held 6 ft. or 8 ft. above it, so that the weight 

 of the water may wash the soil into every crevice formed by the roots, 

 and consolidate it there. Shading will be advisable for some weeks after 

 planting. If the Exmouth variety be chosen, layers will produce flowers in a 

 year or two after being separated from the parent plant, if kept in pots ; but, 

 when they are planted out, and grow freely, so as to make shoots of 2 or 3 

 feet every season, they will probably not flower for three or four years. 

 Whether the tree be against a wall or trellis, or treated as a standard, all the 

 pruning it will require, after it has begun to grow freely, will be, to cut out 

 the stumps from which the flowers or the strobiles have dropped off', and 

 any dead or decaying wood, and any branches which cross and rub on each 

 other. Magnolias against a wall require very little protection, even when 

 young; and this can easily be given by mulching the ground at the roots, and 

 covering their branches with a mat, or with the fronds of the spruce fir. 



2. M. GLAU'CA L. The glimcous-feaved Magnolia. 



Identification. Lin. Sp. t 2. p. 755. ; Tor. and Gray, 1. p. 42. ; Dec. Prod., 1. p. 80. ; Don's Mill., 



1. p. 82. 

 Synonymes. M. fragrans Salisb. ; Swamp Sassafras, Beaver-wood, white Bay, small Magnolia, 



Swamp Magnolia ; Magnolie glauque, Arbre de Castor, Fr. ; grauer Bieberbaum, Ger. 

 Derivation. It is named Swamp Sassafras on account of its growing in boggy places, and resembling 



in qualities the Lauras Sassafras; and Beaver- wood, because the root is eaten as a great dainty by 



the beavers, and these animals are caught by means of it. It also grows in the swamps, which they 



inhabit ; and Michaux tells us that it is felled by them for constructing their dens and houses, in 



preference to any other tree, on account of the softness of the wood. 

 Engravings. Lodd. Bot. Cab., t. 215. ; Sims Bot. Mag., 2164. ; the plate of this species in Arb. 



Brit., 1st edit. vol. v. ; and our Jig. 35. 



Spec. Char., $c. Almost deciduous. Leaves elliptical, obtuse, under surface 

 glaucous. Flower 9 12-petaled, contracted. Petals ovate, concave. (Don's 

 Mill.) A shrub, or low tree, sometimes sub-evergreen. Massachusetts to 

 Missouri in swamps. Height in America 3ft. to 10ft. ; 6 ft. to 20ft. in 

 England. Introduced in 1688. Flowers white, 2 in. to 3 in. broad, very 

 fragrant ; June and September. Strobile brownish. Seeds deep scarlet ; 

 ripe in October. Decaying leaves yellow, brown, or black. Naked young 

 wood green. 



35. > f agn*!ta glaflca. 



Varieties. 



t M. glauca 2 sempcrvircns Hort. Sub-evergreen, and with smaller 

 leaves than those of the next variety. 



If M. glauca 3 Thompsomana Tlwmp. M. glauca var. a major Sot. Mag., 

 new edition, p. 36. The plate of this in the Arb. Brit., first edition, 

 vol. v.; and our fig. 36. It was noticed about 1820, in a pot of seed- 

 lings, by Mr. Thompson, in his nursery at Mile-end ; and by him kept 

 distinct, and propagated under the above name. 



