494 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



and occasionally pines on nearby higher ground. Festoons of grayish- 

 green Spanish moss often add to the tropical character of the scene. 

 The moss seldom hangs on the magnolia, but is frequently abundant on 

 surrounding trees. 



Lumbermen formerly left the evergreen magnolia trees on tracts 

 from which they cut nearly everything else. Large areas which had 

 once been regarded as swamps were thus converted into parks of giant 

 magnolias, many of which towered seventy or eighty feet. The tracts 

 were left wild, and those who so left them had no purpose of providing 

 ornament, but they did so. Many a scene was made grand by its 

 magnolias, after other forest growth had been cut away. 



The range of evergreen magnolia is from North Carolina to Florida 

 and west to Arkansas and Texas. The species reaches largest size in the 

 vicinity of the Mississippi, both east and west of it. Trees eighty feet 

 high and four feet in diameter occur, and trunks are often without limbs 

 one-half or two-thirds their length, when they grow in forests. 



The common name for the tree in most parts of its range is simply 

 magnolia, though that name fails to distinguish it from several other 

 species, some of which are associated with it. Occasionally it is called 

 big laurel, great laurel magnolia, laurel-leaved magnolia, laurel, and 

 laurel bay. Bull bay is a common name for it in Georgia, Alabama, 

 and Mississippi. It is called bat tree, but the reason for such a name 

 is not known. 



Leaves are from five to eight inches long and two or three wide, 

 and dark green above, but lighter below. They fall in the spring after 

 remaining on the branches two whole years. 



The odor of the flowers is unpleasant, but they are attractive to the 

 sight, being six or eight inches across, with purple bases. The flowering 

 habit of this tree is all that could be desired. It is in bloom from April 

 till August. 



The fruit resembles that of the other magnolias and is three or four 

 inches long and two or less wide. Its color is rusty-brown. The ripe 

 seeds hang awhile by short threads, according to the habit of the family. 

 The wood is stronger than poplar, fully as stiff, and nearly fifty per cent 

 heavier. The annual rings are rather vaguely marked by narrow bands 

 of summerwood. Pores are diffuse, plentiful, and very small. Medul- 

 lary rays are larger than those of yellow poplar, and show fairly weH in 

 quarter-sawed stock. The wood is compact and easily worked, except 

 when hard streaks are encountered. The surface finishes with a satiny 

 luster; color creamy- white, yellowish- white, or often light brown. Occa- 

 sionally the wood is nearly diametrically the opposite of this, and is of all 

 darker shades up to purple, black, and blue black. The appearance of 



