346 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Distribution. Rich moist soil on the borders of river swamps and Pine-barren ponds, 

 or rarely on high rolling hills; coast of North Carolina southward to De Soto County, 

 Florida, extending across the peninsula, and in the neighborhood of the coast through the 

 other Gulf states to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, ranging inland to central Missis- 



Fig. 3 12 



sippi and to southern Arkansas, and northward on the bluffs of the lower Mississippi River 

 to the mouth of the Yazoo River, Mississippi; best developed and most abundant on the 

 bluff formation of the lower Mississippi River, and of its largest size in West Feliciana 

 Parish, Louisiana. 



Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in all countries of temperate climate; in the 

 eastern United States precariously hardy as far north as Trenton, New Jersey. Numerous 

 varieties, differing in the form of the leaf and in the duration of the flowering period, have 

 appeared in European nurseries; of these, the most distinct is the variety exoniensis Loud., 

 with a rather fastigiate habit and broadly elliptic leaves densely clothed with rusty tomen- 

 tum on the low r er surface; this variety begins to flower when only a few feet high. 



4. Magnolia virginiana L. Sweet Bay. Swamp Bay. 

 Magnolia glauca L. 



Leaves oblong or elliptic and obtuse or oblong-lanceolate, covered when they unfold 

 with long white silky deciduous hairs, at maturity bright green, lustrous and glabrous 

 on the upper surface, finely pubescent and pale or nearly white on the lower sur- 

 face, 4 '-6' long, l^'-3' wide, with a conspicuous midrib and primary veins; falling in the 

 north late in November and in early winter, at the south remaining on the branches with 

 little change of color until the appearance of the new leaves in the spring; petioles slender, 

 ^'-f ' in length. Flowers on slender glabrous pedicels 2' f' long, creamy white, fragrant, 

 globular, 2'-3' across, continuing to open during several weeks in spring and early summer; 

 sepals membranaceous, obtuse, concave, shorter than the 9-12, obovate often short-pointed 

 concave petals. Fruit ellipsoidal, dark red, glabrous, 2' long and \' thick; seeds obovoid, 

 oval, or suborbicular, much flattened, \' in length. 



A slender tree, 20-30 high, with a trunk rarely more than 15'-20' in diameter, with 

 small mostly erect ultimately spreading branches and slender bright green branchlets 

 hoary-pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, marked by narrow horizontal pale 

 lenticels, gradually turning bright red-brown in their second summer; usually a low shrub. 

 Winter-buds covered with fine silky pubescence, the terminal |'-f ' long. 



