40 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



During the early part of July the Lindens (Tilia), 

 the largest genus of summer-flowering trees, put 

 forth their fragrant, honey-laden, pendent blossoms. 

 The native Sweet Bay (Magnolia glaucd) with cup- 

 shaped white flowers is also in blossom, and in wet 

 seasons a second crop of flowers appears on Magnolia 

 cordata. This medium-sized native tree has beauti- 

 ful cup-shaped yellow flowers and its history is more 

 than ordinarily interesting. It was originally dis- 

 covered by the elder Michaux in the neighborhood of 

 Augusta, Georgia, some time between 1787 and 1796, 

 and by him (or his son) introduced into France. The 

 trees now in cultivation are derived from these original 

 introductions of Michaux. All efforts to rediscover 

 this Magnolia failed until about two years ago when 

 Mr. Louis A. Berckmans accidentally "happened" 

 upon it in a dry wood some eighteen miles south of 

 Augusta. Michaux describes it as a tree from forty 

 to fifty feet tall, but the recent discoveries are bushes 

 from four to six feet tall. 



From the middle to the end of July the Sourwood 

 or Sorrel Tree (Oxydendrum arboreum), another Amer- 

 ican tree, is in flower. A native of the Appalachian 

 Mountains where it grows thirty feet and more tall, 

 this member of the Heath family is quite hardy in 

 Massachusetts where it commences to blossom when 



