Magnolia 1 587 



This variety is said by Loudon to have been brought from America 1 by Lyon 

 in 1 801, the original tree in Loddiges' nursery being about 15 ft. high in 1838. No 

 wild tree exactly similar to this variety has been discovered ; but forms approaching 

 it in the pubescence and shape of the leaves and in the small size and colour of 

 the flowers have been found on the Blue Ridge in South Carolina, and in central 

 Alabama. We have seen no large specimens in England. Bean 2 saw at Herren- 

 hausen, Hanover, a tree 35 ft. high by 3 ft. 1 in. in 1908. (A. H.) 



Distribution and Cultivation 



M. acuminata extends from western New York and southern Ontario, where 

 Macoun gives the Niagara Falls as its only natural station, southward along the 

 Alleghany Mountains, to southern Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and 

 Mississippi. It seems to be rare in the north, and attains its greatest size and 

 abundance only in the rich woods of the lower valleys of east Kentucky and 

 Tennessee. 



It was introduced into cultivation in England by Bartram, who sent plants to 

 Peter Collinson in 1736. 



It is the only Magnolia which as yet has grown to be a large tree in this country, 

 and seems to require less summer heat, and to endure more severe frost than any of 

 the other American species ; but it only becomes a fine tree in warm rich soils in 

 the southern half of England. I am not aware that it has ever ripened seed 3 in 

 this country ; but Loudon says that seedlings are preferable to plants raised from 

 layers, and that they were used as stocks on which to graft other species of 

 Magnolia. Masters says 4 that it is one of the very best of trees for towns. 



Loudon mentions as the largest specimen known to him, one recently cut down 

 at Thorndon Hall, the seat of Lord Petre in Essex, which was nearly 7 ft. in girth ; 

 and there was another in the same park 37 ft. by 7 ft., which survived until 1903. 

 He figures one at Syon 49 ft. high in 1838, which may not be the same as one now 

 growing in the Church Walk there, and recorded by Jackson as 51 ft. 5 in. by 3 ft. 

 7 in. in girth. 



The finest tree known to us (Plate 358) grows at West Dean Park, and when I 

 saw it in 1906 was 60 ft. by 7 ft., with a clean trunk about 25 ft. high. There is a 

 much taller but ill-shaped tree branching near the ground at Albury, which was 

 about 75 ft. high in 1905. At Claremont in 1903 I saw a tree about 55 ft. by d\ ft., 

 which in 1883 was 40 ft. high. In 19 10 Mr. Bean 5 found it to be 60 ft. high. At 

 The Mote, Maidstone, I measured a handsome tree 68 ft. by 4 ft. 9 in. in 191 1. 

 Another standing close to it was 56 ft. by 6 ft. 



At Heanton Satchville, in North Devon, in 1905 I saw a straight well-shaped 

 pyramidal tree 57 ft. by 5 ft. 3 in. At Arley Castle there are two fine trees 65 ft. 



1 Sargent, in Garden and Forest, 1 889, p. 338, states that two specimens in the Harvard Botanic Garden are known to 

 have been fully grown trees in 1842. 2 Kew Bull. 1908, p. 392. 



8 Bunbury, Arb. Notes, 55 (1889), says that the fruit always dropped off from the tree at Barton, before it was half ripe, 

 4 Gard. Chron. vi. 474 (1889). 6 Kew Bull. 1910, p. 164. 



