94 Further Experiences with Magnolias. 



FURTHER EXPERIENCES WITH MAGNOLIAS. 



The past season was peculiarly favorable for the several varieties and 

 species cultivated in this vicinity. Their growth of wood, and number, 

 perfection, and beauty of flowers, were never surpassed. In former years, 

 frosts, snow, rain, or blasting winds, occasionally impaired the inflorescence 

 of the early-blossoming kinds, such as conspicua and soulangea?ia : but they 

 met with no such unfavorable contingency during the last spring ; calm, 

 mild, and clear weather prevailing at the period of their blooming. 



The later-flowering kinds flourished equally well during the extreme hot 

 and dry season which followed ; and now, at its close, their well-matured 

 wood, and profusion of blow-buds, give promise for a fine display of beauty 

 next season. Public attention is here extensively awakened to their value 

 for ornaments to our gardens and lawns. Nurserj'-men are pressed with 

 orders for young plants far beyond their means of supply. All doubts in 

 regard to their successful cultivation in this northern latitude have been 

 dispelled ; and, to insure their extensive introduction, it only remains to 

 initiate the public into the art of their propagation and management. A 

 little more skill and perseverance are necessary than are requisite for 

 rearing a peach or pear tree ; yet no insurmountable obstacle impedes the 

 way. 



In a former article, I expressed a doubt as to the specific distinctness of 

 the cordata and acuminata, having had no favorable opportunity to compare 

 them. Last spring, I discovered good-sized trees standing in contiguity 

 in a front yard on Garden Street, in Cleveland ; and I carefully watched 

 their progress of flowering. They are distinct and well-marked species, 

 but are not to be distinguished by the characters laid down in our botanical 

 books. The adoption of the name of cordata for that species, by Michaux, 

 was unfortunate for scientific accuracy. Few of its leaves are even sub- 

 cordate ; while those of the acuminata, especially of young and luxuriant 

 trees, frequently furnish the most perfect specimens of cordate form. Their 

 habits of growth, and the form and color of their flowers, furnish, to the 

 common observer, sufficient characters for specific distinction. 



Buds of the purpurea, inserted on an acuminata stock, having withstood 



