AMERICAN FOREST TREES 495 



the dark wood suggests decay, but those who pass it through machines, 

 or work it by hand, consider it as sound as the lighter colored wood. 



The uses of magnolia are much the same in all parts of its range, 

 and those of Louisiana, where the utilization of the wood has been 

 studied more closely than in other regions, indicate the scope of its 

 usefulness. It is there made into parts of boats, bar fixtures, boxes, 

 broom handles, brush backs, crates, door panels, dugout canoes, ex- 

 celsior, furniture shelving, interior finish, ox yokes, panels, and wagon 

 boxes. In Texas where the annual consumption probably exceeds a 

 million feet, it is employed by furniture makers, and appears in window 

 blinds, packing boxes, sash, and molding. In Mississippi, fine mantels 

 are made of carefully selected wood, quarter-sawed to bring out the 

 small, square "mirrors" produced by radial cutting of the medullary 

 rays. 



Evergreen magnolia has long been planted for ornament in this 

 country and Europe. It survives the winters at Philadelphia. Several 

 varieties have been developed by cultivation and are sold by nurseries. 



Southern forests have contributed, and still contribute, large 

 quantities of magnolia leaves for decorations in northern cities during 

 winter. The flowers are not successfully shipped because they are easily 

 bruised, and they quickly lose then" freshness and beauty. 



SWEET MAGNOLIA (Magnolia glauca) ranges from Massachusetts to Texas and 

 south to Florida. It reaches its largest size on the hummock lands of the latter state. 

 Trees are occasionally seventy feet high and three or more in diameter, but in many 

 parts of its range it is small, even shrubby. Among the names by which it is known 

 are white bay, swamp laurel, swamp sassafras, swamp magnolia, white laurel, and 

 beaver-tree. It inhabits swamps in the northern part of its range, hence the fre- 

 quency of the word "swamp" in coining names for it. Beaver-tree as a name is 

 probably due to its former abundance about beaver dams, where impounded water 

 made the ground swampy. In the North, sweet magnolia's chief value is in its flowers, 

 which are two or three inches across, creamy-white, and fragrant. They were 

 formerly very abundant near the mouth of the Susquehanna river in Maryland and 

 Pennsylvania, and northward through New Jersey; but the traffic in the flowers has 

 destroyed the growth in many places where once plentiful. It is not important as a 

 timber resource, but it is employed for a number of useful purposes where logs of fair 

 size may be had. The sapwood is creamy-white, but the heart is nearly as dark as 

 mahogany, and in Texas it is used to imitate that wood. The brown and other shades 

 combine with fine effect. One of its common uses is for broom handles. Heartwood 

 is worked into high-grade chairs. It takes a beautiful polish. 



FRASER UMBRELLA (Magnolia fraseri) ranges south from the Virginia moun- 

 tains to Florida and west to Mississippi. It is of largest size in South Carolina where 

 trees are sometimes thirty feet high and a foot or more in diameter. The leaves fall 

 in autumn of the first year ; the creamy-white, sweetly-scented flowers are eight or ten 

 inches in diameter, and the fruit resembles that of the other magnolias. The wood 

 is weak, soft, and light. The heart is clear brown, the sapwood nearly white. It 

 has not been reported in use for any commercial purpose. Among its other names 



