24 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



luxuriant, sweet-flowered magnolias. The somewhat 

 tulip-shaped flowers, which come late in spring, are 

 three inches wide, greenish 

 yellow-white, and fragrant. 



Magnolia acuminata 



The leaves are rather thin, dark green above, lighter 

 green and slightly downy below, and they measure 

 from seven to ten inches in length. They are widely 

 distributed along the branch and not clustered at the 

 end. The orange-red seeds of the peculiar, curved 

 fruit -cone ripen in autumn ; * when green, the cone 

 resembles a small cucumber ; it is about two or three 

 inches long. The wood is soft, durable, and light ; 

 it has been extensively used for pump logs and water 

 troughs. This tree grows wild from western New 

 York southwestward to Arkansas, and southward 

 to southern Alabama ; it is one of the largest of 



* The seeds, on being released from the pods, hang suspended 

 by little white filaments, like those of the great and small mag- 

 nolias, 



