484 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



and twenty inches in diameter. It is not considered valuable for .umber, because of 

 scarcity and small size. The wood is considerably heavier than yellow poplar, and is 

 hard but not strong; light brown in color with thick, light yellow sapwood. Reports 

 do not show that the wood is put to any use. Planted trees are hardy as far north as 

 Massachusetts, and success has attended the tree's introduction in the parks and 

 gardens of southern Europe. 



YiM.u >\v FLOWERED CUCUMBER TREE (Magnolia acuminata cordata) is usually 

 considered a variety of the common cucumber tree, rather than a separate species. 

 The most noticeable feature is the yellow blossom which gives the names by which 

 it is generally known, among such being yellow-flowered magnolia, and yellow cu- 

 cumber tree. It is not a garden variety, for it grows wild; but it has been cultivated 

 during more than a century, and has undergone changes which are not matched by 

 wild trees. The finest forms of the forest variety are found on the Blue Ridge in 

 South Carolina, and in central Alabama. The cultivated tree is distinguished by its 

 darker green leaves, and by its smaller, bright, canary-yellow flowers. The variety 

 has no value as a timber tree, but is widely appreciated as an ornament. Cultivated 

 trees generally remain small in size, and do not develop the long, clean trunks com- 

 mon with the cucumber tree under forest conditions. 



UMBRELLA TREE (Magnolia tripelala) is one of the magnolias and should not 

 be confounded with the Asiatic umbrella tree often planted in yards. The flower is 

 surrounded by a whorl of leaves resembling an umbrella, hence the name. It is also 

 known as cucumber, magnolia, and elkwood. The range of the tree extends from 

 Pennsylvania to Alabama and west to Arkansas. It prefers the margins of swamps 

 and the rich soil along mountain streams. Leaves are eighteen inches long and half 

 as wide. They fall in autumn. Flowers are cup-shaped and creamy-white. The 

 fruit somewhat resembles that of the common cucumber tree, but is rose colored when 

 fully ripe. Trees are thirty or forty feet high and a foot or more in diameter. The 

 brown heartwood is light, soft, and weak, and is used little or not at all for com- 

 mercial purposes. The tree is cultivated for ornament in the northern states and 

 in Europe. 



