MAGNOLIA TRIBE. 357 



the forest in their superb foliage, (the leaves sometimes attaining 

 the length of three feet), and in their magnificent goblet-shaped 

 flowers, that look as if they were chiselled out of alabaster. The 

 East Indian species are most remarkable for the perfume they 

 diffuse. It would scarcely be supposed, that these princes of the 

 Vegetable kingdom should be allied to the humble Crowfoots 

 we have been just considering ; and yet the structure of their 

 flowers shows them to be so. The Magnolia has a calyx of 

 three small sepals, and a corolla of six petals ; these numbers, 

 though varied in the different genera, are usually multiples of 

 three. The stamens are numerous, and arise immediately from 

 the receptacle. In the centre of the flower there are a large 

 number of carpels, each containing a distinct cell, and terminated 

 by a narrow thread-shaped stigma. In no essential point, then, 

 does the flower of the Magnolia, as yet described, differ from 

 that of the Ranunculacese ; there is this important variation, 

 however, that the carpels of the former grow together in some 

 degree, so that the fruit, instead of consisting of a cluster of 

 grains, as in most of the Ranunculacece, appears as a solid 

 cone. 



516. There is a more important difference, however, in the 

 leafy parts of the tree. There may be found in many plants, at 

 the base of each leaf-stalk, a pair of small leafy bodies, which are 

 called stipules^ and which are to the leaves very much what the 

 bracts are to the flowers. In the Magnolia the stipules are large, 

 and perform an important function, to which there is nothing 

 analogous in the Ranunculaceae. Each of its branches is ter- 

 minated by a little horn-like projection, springing from the base 

 of the last leaf ; this horn is a pair of stipules, rolled together 

 for the protection of the next leaf that is to be unfolded. That 

 and the next leaf has a similar pair of stipules, which roll up 

 over the still younger leaf lying at the base of its yet undeve- 

 loped petiole ; and if the horn be cut through, several generations 

 of leaves will be found thus enfolded one within the other. This 

 is a characteristic peculiarity of the Magnolia tribe ; and it has 

 an interesting relation with the circumstances of its growth ; for 

 the bud is peculiarly tender, and requires to be protected from 



