2 Spring-Flowering Trees. — TJie Magnolias. 



a gentleman of Troy, having six hundred and twenty-nine blossoms on It. 

 We have a tree on our lawn here, the head of which is about fifty feet in cir- 

 cumference. To count its flowers would be an almost impossible task : over 

 eight hundred have been counted, and the work given up in despair. It is 

 the variety Soidangeana, one of the hardiest and best ; flowers are large, 

 full, cup-shaped, white within, deeply stained and marbled with purple out- 

 side. CoJispiciia is pure white, fragrant, and beautiful ; but, in our climate, 

 does not bloom so profusely as the first-named, owing to some of the flower- 

 buds being injured by winter. 



The Chinese name is Yulan ; it is said to be the parent of the Soulan- 

 geana, crossed with the purpurea, which is called ohovata by some, and 

 discolor by others. It is a dwarf, bushy-growing species, seldom exceed- 

 ing four or five feet in height ; flowers dark purple outside, and white 

 within. Speciosa is another variety ; flowers smaller than eotispiciia or Sou- 

 langeana; white, slighdy stained with purple outside; very hardy; blooms 

 in great profusion, and so light colored, that it answers all the purpose 

 of a white ; much more valuable for our Northern climate than the 

 conspicua. 



JVorberti, Lemie, and supcrha are improvements on Soiilangeana in the 

 size and darker color of the flowers ; but, for general effect, the Soulangeana 

 and speciosa are the two best among those now generally grown in the 

 murseries. 



All these Chinese magnolias may be propagated from layers ; but the 

 ifinest trees are obtained by budding or grafting them on our native species, 

 ithe acuminata. The finest trees in our grounds, and the finest I have ever 

 seen, are so worked. The French use the purpurea as a stock, and propagate 

 mostly by inarching, as we see by the plants sent us ; but they are far infe- 

 rior to ours worked on the acuminata, known as the " cucumber-tree," and 

 one of the most majestic and beautiful of our Northern forests. 



I understand that the tripetela, another of our American species, has 

 been successfully used as a stock ; but it cannot be so good as the acumi- 

 nata, for two reasons ; first, it is not so hardy, being indigenous to our 

 Southern States only ; second, its habit of growth, at least here in the 

 North, is to send up a succession of shoots from the collar, which cannot 

 be suppressed without shortening the life of the tree. 



