388 



The Magnolias 



Fig. 341. Bull Bay. 



veined on the upper side, the under sur- 

 face rusty-hairy, the base either narrowed 

 or rounded; the thick leaf-stalks are 3.5 

 cm. long or less. The broadly bell-shaped 

 flowers open from April to July or Au- 

 gust, and are heavily fragrant; the creamy 

 "white sepals and petals are broadly obo- 

 vate, notched, clawed, 7 to 10 cm. long 

 and nearly as wide as long; the styles are 

 stout and persistent, the ovaries densely 

 hair}^ The ripe fruit is oval, very hairy, 

 8 to 12 cm. long, the obovoid seeds 1.5 

 to 2 cm. long, somewhat flattened. 



The wood has a hmited use in car- 

 pentry and is good fuel; it is nearly white 

 with a specific gravity of about 0.64, and 

 rather hard. The tree is highly valued for 

 decorative planting from Maryland south- 

 ward, and in warm-temperate Europe. 



4. SWEET BAY Magnolia virginiana Linnaeus, 1753 

 Magnolia glauca Linnaeus, 1763 



The Sweet bay. Swamp bay, or Laurel magnoha, known also as White bay, 

 Swamp laurel. Swamp sassafras, and Beaver tree, while seldom over 8 to 10 meters 

 high at the north, and there often flowering as a shrub, attains in Florida a height 

 of 20 to 25 meters, with a trunk up to a meter 

 in diameter or more. It grows in swamps 

 from eastern Massachusetts to southern Florida, 

 extending westward to Lebanon county, Penn- 

 sylvania, central North Carolina, and westward 

 through the Gulf States to Texas and southern 

 Arkansas. The base of its trunk is sometimes 

 much swollen. 



The old bark is thin and gray, that of young 

 trees and branches pale gray or nearly white; 

 the round young twigs are finely hairy, green, 

 becoming reddish brown to gray. The leaves, 

 which arc deciduous in the autumn at the 

 north, but persistent through the winter at the 

 south, are oblong to elliptic, firm in texture, 5 

 to 15 cm. long, pointed or blunt at each end, 

 pale and silky hairy when unfolding and remaining so on the under surface, but 



Fig. 342. Sweet Bay. 



