STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



This magnolia is found growing more or less 

 commonly in swamps from New Jersey to 

 Florida, but it is rare in the north. Over a 

 hundred years ago it was discovered growing 

 wild in Essex County, Massachusetts, by a 

 minister of Ipswich, the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, 

 and it is still found in the swamps near 

 Gloucester. It is a low shrub in the north, 

 but in the south it grows to be a slender tree. 

 The wood which is soft and light is occasionally 

 used in the south for making broom handles. 

 The roots of the swamp magnolia are very 

 fleshy, and they used to be eaten by beavers. 

 The early settlers in Pennsylvania called it the 

 " beaver tree " and baited their traps to catch 

 beavers with pieces of the roots. 



The name was given to the genus in honor 

 of Pierre Magnol, a professor of botany at 

 Montpellier in the seventeenth century, the 

 former name, glauca (glaucous) referred to the 

 bloom on the under side of the leaves. 



The umbrella tree (Magnolia tripetala) is 

 found much more commonly in parks and 

 gardens than our native swamp magnolia, and 

 it seems a better representative of the genus for 

 illustration. In the south it grows to be thirty 

 or forty feet high. The bark is light gray in 

 color and covered with small, blister-like ex- 



