222 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



flowers much earlier and more abundantly than the original 

 sort. 



We regret that this tree is too tender to bear the open 

 air north of Philadelphia, as it is one of the choicest 

 evergreens. At the nurseries of the Messrs. Landreth, 

 and at the Bartram Botanic Garden of Col. Carr, near that 

 city, some good specimens of this Magnolia and its 

 varieties are growing thriftily ; but in the State of New 

 York, and at the east, it can only be considered a green- 

 house plant. 



The Cucumber Magnolia (C. acuminata), (so called 

 from the appearance of the young fruit, which is not unlike 

 a green cucumber) takes the same place in the north, in 

 point of majesty and elevation, that the Big Laurel 

 occupies in the south. Its northern limit is Lake Erie ; 

 and it abounds along the whole range of the Alleghanies to 

 the southward, in rich mountain acclivities, and moist 

 sheltered valleys. There it often measures three or four 

 feet in diameter, and eighty in height. The leaves, which 

 are deciduous, like those of all the Magnolias except the M. 

 grandiftora, are also about six inches long and four broad, 

 acuminate at the point, of a bluish green on the upper 

 surface. The flowers are six inches in diameter, of a pale 

 yellow, much like those of the Tulip tree, and slightly 

 fragrant. The fruit is about three inches long, and 

 cylindrical in shape. Most of the inhabitants of the 

 country bordering on the Alleghanies, says Michaux, 

 gather these cones about midsummer, when they are half 

 ripe, and steep them in whiskey ; the liquor produced, they 

 take as an antidote against the fevers prevalent in those 

 districts. 



The Umbrella Magnolia (M. tripetala), though found 



