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Chapter II. 



Order II.— MAGXOLIACE.E {Triljc JVinterece.) The Magnolia Family. 



Chakacter op the Okdee. — Aronuitic shrubs or trees, 

 willi alternate, exstipulate leaves. .Sop:ils and petals imbri- 

 cated in 2. .S, or in manv series ; verv deciduous. Stamens 

 numerous; hrpogvnous. Filaments often thick or dilated ; 

 anthers, adnate. Carpels fen", in 1 scries, «ith 2 or more 



ovules attached to the ventral suture. Stigma sessile and 

 ternnnal, or decurrent along the suture. Ripe carpels of free, 

 sTnall drupes, follicles or berries. Seeds few ; testa shining ; 

 albumen copious, tlcshj ; embr_yo small. — Handbook of New 

 Zealand Flora, p. !). 



Description of the Order. — 



/OBTAINING many genera, this order abounds in the Sonthevn United 

 States, the mountainous regions of India, and Eastern Asia ; its qualities 

 are aromatic. The Magnolia, from Avhich the order receives its name, is a 

 ^veil-known plant, and was so called to conuuemorate the fame of that 

 celebrated botanist, Pierre Magnol, Professor of Medicine and Botany at 

 Montpellier, in the latter part of the seventeenth, and beginning of the 

 eighteenth, century. The genus Magnolia consists for the most part of large trees, 

 with fine foliage, and handsome fragrant flowers. Most of the species have aromatic 

 tonic properties, which has led to their employment in fevers, rheumatism, and other 

 complaints. The beauty of the foliage and flowers of these trees give them yet greater 

 claims to our regard than their medicinal properties, Avhich, although not slight, are 

 excelled by those of other plants. The noblest of all is, perhaps, M. gmndiflora, a native 

 of Nortli Carolina, where it forms a tree sixty to one hundred feet high, though one 

 mentioned as indigenous to Northern India, growing to the height of one hundred and 

 fifty feet. Some of the species in cultivation are low-growing shrubs, diifering in the 

 sha2)e of their leaves and jieriod of flowermg, but all possess an exquisite fragrance. 



